US Interstate Highway System Turns 50

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower learned the value of good roads when, as a young Army officer, he led a convoy across the US in 1919. During that journey, vehicles got so mired in mud that they had to be abandoned. Nearly 40 years later, Eisenhower used Hitler's own state-of-the-art Autobahn to pursue the retreating Nazis. So when Eisenhower became President, it's little surprise that he pushed for -- and got -- a national superhighway system.

Today, that Interstate Highway system, commissioned in June 1956, is turning 50 years old (Eisenhower sold the system as a civil defense mechanism at the height of the Cold War). Most of us are too young to remember life before the Interstates, but they radically changed the way Americans travel and commute, providing lessons in the unintended consequences of a major disruptive innovation.

Foremost, the Interstates marked the transition of the major land transportation vehicle from the train to the automobile... leading to many good things (more personal freedom, a robust auto industry that provided good jobs, an equally healthy travel industry that catered to auto travelers and vacationers) and bad (pollution, dependence on oil, decline of the rail industry). The car-centered society that the Interstates fostered begat other innovations such as suburban tract housing developments, shopping malls, motel and restaurant chains, suburban office parks, and, most recently, "edge cities." Older city centers, by contrast, were emptied and left to those who could not afford cars.

As Interstates replaced older US highways (such as the legendary Route 66), their proximity to existing towns and businesses was literally a matter of life and death. "Mom and Pop" stores, motels and even whole towns that did not have the good fortune to be located near an Interstate exit were bypassed, and many eventually declined. Everywhere in America are ghosts of our pre-Interstate past.

Next week, millions of Americans will be hitting the road for the July 4th holiday. Most likely, that road will be an Interstate, celebrating its birthday along with the nation's.

Source: Washington Post (via MSNBC)

Canada: The First Cashless Society?

The Great White North is leading the way toward cashless payments. Canadians are the world's most enthusiastic users of debit cards and smart cards, and appear to be more interested than those in other countries in cellphone payments and fingerprint scans. Canadians are even applying cashless technology to such items as parking meters.

However, not all is perfect in this cashless scenario. Payment errors and customer service problems abound, and 12% of Canadians surveyed said they would quit using electronic payment if problems persisted.

Those involved in cashless payment systems in other countries will surely be watching Canada to learn which services consumers embrace, what problems emerge, and how they're resolved. Ultimately, they'll want to see if Canadians eschew cash altogether in favor of high-tech payments.

Source: Canada.com

Will Blogs, Wikis, RSS, Mashups be Used in Corporate eLearning?

I saw another post from Dave Boggs, Has The Blogging Trend Begun To Fade, Even Before It Ever Got Started In Corporate Training / e-Learning Environments? In this post, Dave unfortunately lumps together blogs, wikis, mashups, rss feed together (probably because eLearning 2.0 and web 2.0 often lump them together). However, I think the answer about adoption rates is going to be quite different for these things with Wikis and Mashups being adopted at a very high rate. RSS and Blogs have much slower adoption.

Wikis provide an opportunity for us to create reference hybrids -Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids - easily and maintain them easily. We will dump Dreamweaver and RoboInfo in favor of Wikis.

Mashups we basically already use but in a different form. A reference hybrid embeds learning objects (e.g., Captivate movies in Flash) within the content. While technically this is not a mashup because the Captivate provides static content, its the same basic idea and something we are familiar with. Thus, adoption Mashups and Addins is a natural extension of what we are already used to doing. See: Authoring in eLearning 2.0 / Add-ins & Mash-ups.

US Middle-Class Neighborhoods Disappearing

Wither the middle class in America? If you wanted to search for it, you'd have an increasingly hard time finding it in American neighborhoods. Between 1970 and 2000, widening income disparity and new real estate options available to those who can afford them have sent middle-income communities on the decline. In Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, these neighborhoods have fallen by more than 20% in 30 years. In that same period, the percentage of middle-income neighborhoods in the top 100 US metro areas declined from 58% to 41%.

The Brookings Institute survey, which measured the decline, also noted that this decline has led to more segregated communities and lower quality services for poorer neighborhoods. Middle-income neighborhoods sometimes gentrify, attracting wealthy homebuyers interested in restoring quaint communities (and displacing their poorer neighbors in the process). More typically, the affluent move to newer "exurb" communities with larger homes and more property, inadvertently causing property values in their old neighborhoods to fall. That scenario becomes a downward spiral; high-income people move out, home values decline, low-income people move in, schools deteriorate, crime goes up, repeat.

Zoning laws also help make communities more homogeneous. "As upper-income Americans are drawn to the new houses, neighborhoods become more homogeneous," says Thomas Bier, executive in residence at the Center for Housing Research and Policy at Cleveland State University. "The zoning is such that it prevents anything other than a certain income range from living there. It is our latest method of discrimination."

So long as upper-middle- and high-income homebuyers have the mobility to move out of middle-class neighborhoods, the decline of those neighborhoods will be a future trend. Formulating a solution, however, isn't easy; some say that this isn't even a problem, that homebuyers are simply making intelligent choices for their families. Attempts to develop sustainable, moderate-income communities have had limited success, and have little appeal in an upwardly mobile housing market (though they may interest aging baby boomers seeking a tighter-knit community and smaller, more manageable homes). Just as the American preference for SUVs has been limited only by the rise in oil prices, it will likely take an economic crisis, such as a full-blown collapse of the housing market or a major recession, to put the brakes on this trend.

UPDATE: Visit this forum for an insightful discussion about this theme and the possible origins and future of our class divisions.

UPDATE 2: Newsweek explores new approaches to creating sustainable, attractive suburbs throughout the world.

Source: Washington Post

Thorium for Safe, Clean Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is touted as an atmosphere-friendly, cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels as a means to generate electricity. But even though the safety of nuclear power plants has improved greatly in recent years, nuclear power has one problem -- what to do with spent nuclear fuel, which can remain radioactive for thousands of years.

Scientists have begun looking to thorium as a safe fuel source that produces far less nuclear waste, no weapons-grade byproducts, and at lower cost than uranium. Unlike uranium, thorium cannot start a fission explosion, making it useless as a weapon. It also degrades more quickly, and retains only 5% of the radioactivity of uranium. Spent fuel still needs to be stored safely, but for only a fraction of the time of spent uranium.

The biggest challenge to using thorium in nuclear power is that it isn't a good fuel by itself; it needs an amount of uranium or plutonium to kick-start it. Some companies have developed blends of nuclear fuel that balance thorium's beneficial properties with the other elements needed to make it work; these blends can be used to retrofit existing nuclear reactors. A Washington, DC-based company called Thorium Power has created such a blend, which is currently being used in reactors in Russia. Another technology called an Accelerator Driven System (ADS) uses an accelerator beam to energize and regulate thorium fuel rods.

Thorium may be as close as we'll come in the near future to "green" nuclear power. It's not perfect yet, but the twin crises of global warming and fossil fuel depletion will surely drive innovation and demand.

Sources: COSMOS, FuturePundit, advanced nanotechnology

FON Could Re-define Wi-Fi

So-called "mesh" wireless networking, in which users can access wi-fi Internet through one of many local hotspots, finally has a champion -- FON, a Spanish company that hopes to combine social networking with $5 wireless routers for its members to share their access points and create a ubiquitous network of hot spots.

The key to FON's success will supposedly be its portal, through which network users will need to pass, and on which business members can purchase ad space. Users wishing to acccess the network but not sharing an access point can do so fot $3 per day, versus $10 per day to access many other wi-fi networks.

Some observers remain dubious as to how much revenue this will generate, but FON's approach is, if nothing else, an innovative attempt to get inexpensive wi-fi access into underserved areas.

Sources: Red Herring, Futurismic

Good eLearning Assessment Taxonomy

Found via: e-Learning Acupuncture: Great paper that looks at different kinds of test questions commonly used in eLearning courseware and a framework for considering these. Don't let the title throw you - there's good stuff that's readily accessible. You can get the article at: Computer-Based Assessment in E-Learning: A Framework for Constructing "Intermediate Constraint" Questions and Tasks for Technology Platforms.

Guidance Needed - Are we Misguided in Informal Learning and Collaborative Learning Techniques

Found via: Big Dog, Little Dog - a very interesting article: Why Minimal Guidance during Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching - Educational Psychologist

It points out that open learning environments may not be good ways for people to learn. Doesn't this suggest that informal learning, collaborative learning and other approaches to learning that do not provide much guidance are - well - misguided?

US, European Consumers Continue to Embrace Self-Service

Consumers in the US and Europe appear to prefer retailers who offer multiple channels for sales (online, kiosk, self-checkout, etc.).  Such self-service adds convenience while serving a population that has grown accustomed to online shopping.  There is even evidence showing that self-service actually increases sales, especially when it provides customer tools such as comparison shopping and order tracking.

In France, a majority of consumers say they prefer self-service checkout over checkout by a human cashier, and consumers in other European countries aren't far behind.  In both the US and Europe, retailers favor self-service because it has been shown to reduce employee theft from cash registers.

Source: ePayNews

The Friend-less American

It's been said that one can never have too many friends.  Yet despite greater online connectivity, the average Americans has fewer friends that he or she did 20 years ago, with nearly a quarter claiming to have "zero" close friends and half citing one or two.

The findings are the result of a survey of 1,500 Americans conducted for a paper to be published in the American Sociological Review.  "This is a big social change, and it indicates something that's not good for our society," said Duke University Professor Lynn Smith-Lovin, lead author of the paper.

The results were compared to a similar study done in 1985, in which respondents cited having between three and five close friends on average.  The decline in friendships is attributed to Americans lacking the resources to form and maintain lasting relationships -- working longer hours, commuting farther, changing jobs and being downsized more frequently, staying single, having fewer children and shunning traditional social organizations (the "bowling alone" phenomenon).  Our high-tech, convenience-oriented society, moreover, enables us to conduct our daily business with minimal human interaction.  In many "bedroom communities," neighbors rarely speak to one another and have little in common, if they're not completely transient, and neighbors often regard one another as nuisances or even threats rather than as friends.  Perhaps it's not surprising that a generation taught not to talk to strangers would find it difficult to regard them as "friends they haven't met yet."

Sociologists are concerned about this trend, not only because friendships contribute to individuals' psychological and even physical well-being, but because friends provide a social "safety net" that can be invaluable in times of crisis.  Smith-Lovin cites hurricanes as examples of friendships serving as lifesavers:  "It's one thing to know someone and exchange e-mails with them. It's another thing to say, 'Will you give me a ride out of town with all of my possessions and pets? And can I stay with you for a couple or three months?'"

Odds are that such isolation will only worsen in the future unless Americans make fundamental changes in their work and social lives.  Improved work-life balance may help, along with communities that are designed to foster interaction and common activities.  Social groups can also foster individual relationships in a safe and inviting atmosphere, as can leveraging online social networks to promote face-to-face activities.

Source:  CNN.com

3D Web Browsing Makes a Comeback

Remember the hype surrounding Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) and how all the next-generation Web browsers were going to be three-dimensional? Well, the 3D buzz is coming back -- but will it be more than just talk this time around?

New technologies, greater bandwidth and more computing power are behind the latest efforts to incorporate 3D into the browsing experience -- an effort that, its supporters say, was simply ahead of its time back in the '90s. An XML-based 3D coding architecture called X3D, along with 3D application support in the Windows Presentation Foundation (aka: Avalon) that's expected to be a part of the Vista OS, offer a new framework for 3D tools of all kinds. Also, a new generation of 3D browsers such as 3B offers rich browsing environments.

But beyond the technical improvements, 3D browsing is still hampered by the fact that, aside from certain uses, it remains the proverbial hammer in search of a nail. Most people are comfortable with the 2D browsing environment, and find three dimensions disorienting and unnecessary. Gamers and those already accustomed to 3D environments may find 3D browsers appealing (expect players in youth markets to take the lead in experimenting with 3D websites), and 3D browsing has a role in education and simulation training. But otherwise, 3D browsers will likely remain a niche item, used only in situations that call for a rich navigation space.

Source: Extremetech

Using Ethnography to Innovate

To innovate and compete in today's global and rapidly changing economy, businesses are turning to ethnography to help them better understand their current and potential customers. Using principles of anthropology and cultural demographics, this relatively new discipline allows companies to market to specific groups in specific regions.

Intel is a leader in this effort, identifying such groups as "transnationals" who travel extensively and depend on technology to keep them connected. Such observations come as a result of studying people's daily behaviors, interviews, partnering with other experts, and understanding of local customs and preferences. Other organizations with fewer resources will surely want to leverage this practice... perhaps leading to opportunities for consulting ethnographers.

Source: BusinessWeek

US Population to Hit 300 Million by Fall; Hispanics Driving Growth

The US Census Bureau estimates that the population of the US will reach 300 million sometime this coming October. Much of this growth is coming from Hispanics, who, between birth and immigration, account for half of the nation's population growth. By contrast, white non-Hispanics contribute to only one-fifth of the growth.

The last such milestone for the US population was when it reached 200 million in 1967. Since then, the number of people in the US who were born in other countries has risen from 10 million to 36 million.

Source: MSNBC

IFTF Uncovers Five Hot "Artifacts of the Future"

The Institute for the Future has identified five products that it believes will be disruptive breakthroughs in the coming years.  Presented as "artifacts of the future" for Protcer & Gamble, the mock-ups were shown as ordinary products that might appear on store shelves 10 years from now:

• "Pharma-Fruit," fruits fortified with medications and vitamins



• RFID tag blockers and locators



• Bottled water from melting glaciers (might as well get some benefit out of global warming!)



• "Reputation accounts," a universally recognized metric for measuring contributions to blogs, wikis, and other online activity



• Ticketing systems that know your social networks and offer group discounts for you and your "buddies."

Source:  Business 2.0

"Red Crystal" the Newest Humanitarian Emblem

The world is familiar with the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and the good work they do. Yet those symbols, derived from Christianity and Islam, have triggered controversy and resentment in areas experiencing religious strife, as well as in countries that are neither predominantly Muslim nor Christian. To alleviate needless friction, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has adopted a new, religiously neutral symbol of a diamond, or "crystal."

The Red Cross/Crescent controversy has been especially pronounced in Israel and Israeli-occupied territories. Also in recent years, concern has been raised that the cross and crescent emblems may provoke anger in religiously volatile regions.

Source: Telegraph

Are We Approaching Collaborative eLearning Wrong? - The Individual is the New Group

I ran across a recent article by Stowe Boyd - Matthew Glotzbach on Consumer Collaboration that is an interesting look at how the workforce is changing and it has some implications for learning professionals. But, he also linked to a great post: The Individual is the New Group - where he points out that the classic notion of groupware has been falling out of favor and instead the concept of soloware with extension for collaboration (think blog vs. discussion group) is gaining adoption.

A lot of his rationale for the shift echos what I've been reading from Andrew McAfee around Enterprise 2.0 and particularly the failure of software that enforces too many restrictions. Instead, "emergence" - the ability of the system to be fairly open and allow patterns to emerge.

My recent post around Collaborative Online Assignments and my experience with Collaborative Learning Using Web 2.0 Tools - A Summary makes me wonder if maybe we aren't being too groupware/Enterprise IT oriented (too restrictive) and not soloware/emergent oriented?

Future Platforms for eLearning

The recent article by Dion Hinchcliffe - Blogs, wikis, and Web 2.0 as the next application platform got me thinking again about what corporate eLearning development will be like in five years. Actually, I'm not even that sure what it looks like today. I've seen the Content Authoring Research Report from the eLearningGuild that suggests what tools are being used in 2005 and it suggests that most content is being authored using fairly traditional tools such as Flash, PowerPoint, Dreamweaver, Captivate, Lectora. To a lesser extent people are using Rapid eLearning Development tools but this is expected to grow significantly. We also are seeing a Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids.

If you look at my picture of the range of tools:


and consider some of Learning Trends then my current belief is that there is a drive towards using tools that are lower cost and that include the ability to insert higher power capabilities at particular points.

This looks very much like what Dion is talking about in his article, but he takes it a step further by defining it as an architecture for development. This is somewhat like Authoring in eLearning 2.0 / Add-ins & Mash-ups and Typepad Widgets - A Sign of Things to Come in eLearning Authoring / Developement. But I think that the idea of LAMS but based on composition is also inline with this future Point Solutions vs. Suites and Composition.

What's the bottom line? In five years, I would expect us to be building much less SCORM courseware and much more Wiki-like content (web pages) with some interactive exercises, simulations, etc. embedded based on other tools or add-ins. Collaboration will be part of the environment, but we'll still be struggling with getting collaboration to work effectively as part of the system - so we'll still underuse those features. Authoring will be as easy as editing a word document and updates are instantaneous.

Hopefully I'm the first to be saying it, but:

Courseware is the new instructor-led training

It's not dying anytime soon, but its reaching its zenith and will start a slow steady decline.

eLearning Trends, eLearning 2.0, web 2.0, Collaborative Learning, Informal Learning

Keywords: eLearning Trends, eLearning 2.0, Web 2.0, Informal Learning, Collaborative Learning

Tools and Strategies for Personal Learning

I just saw Harold Jarche's post: Adult Learning - pressing issues and where the field is headed, in two sentences. His two (actually three) sentences:

The overwhelming majority of the learning needs of Canadian adults are not
addressed by formal training and education. In this post-industrial era, adults
today require self-directed learning skills to thrive in the unstructured work
environments outside of school. Efforts should be focused on the development of
practical tools and strategies for adults to learn in a networked information
society.

I tend to agree that while day-to-day I focus on formal training and performance support solutions, the real need is to help develop "practical tools and strategies" that help us learn. However, I feel like we are failing miserably in this area.

We (learning professionals) don't seem to know how to use these tools ourselves: Do Learning Professionals Make the Worst Learners? and More Questions on Making Learning for Learning Professionals More Effective.

And I have see lots of examples of tools out there, but I don't see lots of adoption nor do I see the practical strategies.

We need more pragmatic suggestions like I was trying to do in:
Personal Learning for Learning Professionals - Using Web 2.0 Tools to Make Reading & Research More Effective

What else are you finding that's helping you become a better learner in this "networked world."
If you have thoughts on this, I’m a regular reader so I’d love to see more blog posts on these tools and strategies.

Web Video: The Next Bubble?

Web video is all the rage, and everyone's rushing to cash in.  At least 173 video sites like YouTube and Broadsnatch are currently competing for eyeballs... and some are getting venture capital funding in the millions. 

However, the questions surrounding the online video goldrush are hauntingly familiar.  What's the unique angle that new players bring to the table?  What happens when online video is no longer the "cool new thing"?  And everybody's favorite question:  Where's the revenue?  Video sites have additional risks that web startups in the '90s didn't have.  For one, they need to be careful of copyright infringement, as many web videos are ripped from commercial sources.  Also, running a video site requires a lot of overhead in the form of storage, bandwidth and servers, not to mention staff and marketing costs.

Those who observe the online video space warn of a possible shakeout, perhaps within the year.  Meanwhile, those brave enough to enter into the online video space are trying to develop new revenue models and carve a unique niche for themselves that will let them prosper once the dust settles.

Source:  CNN/Money

The 2006 National Entertainment State

Ten years ago, The Nation mapped out what it called "The National Entertainment State," plotting out the major entertainment conglomerates.  Now, they've revisited that map, adding in Internet influences to Disney, GE, News Corp. and other media giants.  The Nation explains the glaring absence of up-and-comers like Google and Yahoo by saying "they do not own--not yet, anyway--the major television networks, which remain Americans' #1 source of news."

Collaborative Online Assignments

I ran across a nice post Clive on Learning: In praise of collaborative online assignments where he suggests that we provide collaborative assignments in addition to self-paced, individual eLearning. I'm a big fan of this approach and have tried it in a few different forms. One was making the content primarily collaborative group projects at the start - Collaborative Learning Using Web 2.0 Tools - A Summary. Another was providing group assignments towards the tail end of particular sections.

Honestly, I've run into enough problems with this kind of approach in terms of synchronizing students, delays in their activity, poor performance by some students, drop-outs, etc. that I've only used it in a few cases. I'm curious if other people are finding success such as what Clive mentions.

View of eLearning Development Approaches - Ease vs. Power

Based on some discussions around What is Rapid eLearning? and Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids, I've realized that one of the mental models I use can be roughly summarized by the following picture:

where Ease is roughly how easy (cost, time) is it to develop using that approach and Power is the ability of the tool to provide robust, complex learning solutions.

Many learning applications do not require more powerful tools, thus, the Reference Hybrids that I discussed previously is a blend of low-cost solutions with point solutions when higher power is needed.

I welcome feedback on this mental model.

Also since this is a picture and about half of the people who visit my web site come through search, I thought I'd include the text here so it can be found: Custom Coding, Flash, DHTML
Rapid eLearning, PowerPoint + Audio + Interactions, Form-based Authoring (LCMS), Interactive PowerPoint, Simple HTML, Dreamweaver, CMS (Content Management System),
RoboInfo, Simple PowerPoint, Wiki, Podcasts, Blog, Email, Authoring Tools, Lectora, Captivate.

Mothers of the Future May be Older... Much Older

Research unveiled at the 22nd annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague gives hope to women who want to freeze their eggs for later fertilization, perhaps decades down the road. Using the new technique, called Cryotop, eggs have a 90% survival rate, yield a pregnancy rate of 42%. The process prevents formation of ice crystals that can damage eggs.

Until now, freezing of unfertilized eggs has been a trickier process than freezing of sperm or embryos. But techniques such as Cryotop will provide new options to women who want to preserve their eggs for later fertilization.

The entire process of in vitro fertilization (IVF) adds a new wrinkle to the birth process, and the differences between our physiology and modern society. IVF is popular because women increasingly want to delay childbirth until they are financially stable and otherwise in a good position to start a family. Yet this might not occur until relatively late in life -- and with increasing lifespans, women might choose to wait to have children until their 50s, 60s or even later.

This, of course, conflicts with the way that the human body has evolved over the last 150,000 years. Until about 100 years ago, women's peak childbearing years were in their teens and early 20s; after that, with lowered fertility, they could help their daughters raise their children, and relatively few women lived long past menopause. Therefore, infertility had a social benefit, and post-menopause was a rare and unnatural condition.

Today, we discourage teen girls and young women from having children, urging them to focus on their educations and other aspects of life. Meanwhile, women in their 50s may have 40 or 50 healthy years ahead of them -- years that they might want to devote to parenthood.

As our notions of aging and childbirth change, so will our expected timeline for starting a family. Some futurists believe that people might have multiple families at different times in their lives, while others believe that people's youth (teen years through their 30s) will be devoted to self-fulfillment, with marriage and childbirth reserved for what we today consider to be "midlife."

Source: Eurekalert

Nielsen Will Measure Online, Portable Media Viewers

Realizing that audiences are viewing video content through many media other than TV, Nielsen Media Research will begin measuring viewership through the Web, video iPods, DVRs and video-capable cell phones. The new program, called "Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement," (A2/M2) will enable a variety of new-media producers to measure their ratings -- opening up new possibilities for advertising and other forms of sponsorship, and providing a better understanding of viewer demographics and behavior. Measurement of portable media will be especially revealing.

Nielsen will begin rolling out A2/M2 this summer, but sees full implementation as a multi-year initiative.

Source: BuzzMachine

"Star Trek" Fans Create Their Own New Episodes

Hardcore fans of Star Trek are adding a whole new meaning to the adage, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." With no new Star Trek series or episodes currently in the works, fans are writing and producing their own original episodes, and making them available online.

Digital technology is putting a whole new spin on fan fiction, giving enthusiasts the tools to create and distribute entire episodes that explore different themes, create new characters and re-interpret existing ones, and that are as optimistic, funny or dark as their creators want them to be. Among the productions available online -- featuring varying levels of technical sophistication -- are Hidden Frontier, StarshipExeter.com, Starship Farragut, and Star Trek New Voyages.

One would think that the copyright attorneys at Paramount Studios, which owns the rights to Star Trek, would be having fits over these ventures. But admirably, Paramount is taking a hands-off approach, regarding the producers as hobbyists who don't profit from their work. Plus, most of these productions honor the original spirit of Star Trek, which would give Paramount little concern. Some of the original Star Trek actors are even getting involved in the productions.

These productions, combined with the copyright holder's benevolent attitude, may set a new precedent for fans wishing to breathe new life into their favorite TV shows or movies. The most creative and successful ones might even find that their passion will translate into profit.

Source: New York Times

Stereo Systems: Yet Another Victim of iPod Disruption

Music purchased on physical media (CD, tapes, etc.) apparently isn't the only technology that the iPod is disrupting:

Indeed, by plugging the iPod into a pair of speakers, many people are dispensing with a traditional home hi-fi set up altogether. The sound quality isn't as good (purists say), but it's good enough, and for many - perhaps most - of us the gain in control and simplicity easily outweighs the disadvantages. So the iPod signals the end of another, if less malign, producer tyranny - hi-fi manufacturers beware...

One lesson is the importance of using the right medium, and executing it properly. The iPod is a textbook example of getting applications - for playing, organising and buying music - to work seamlessly together through the net without dropping you between the gaps. The second is simplicity. The more complicated the product, the harder it has to work to make you love it. A large part of the iPod's appeal is how easy it is to use - put another way, the fact that nothing gets between you and what you want from it.

Long ago, complicated tape decks, turntables, equalizers and amplifiers -- all driving sound through massive speakers -- were the ultimate status symbols for audiophiles. Indeed, their size and complexity (embodying everything the iPod is not) was a large part of their appeal. Then "boom boxes" (remember those) made music portable, simpler and more controllable. Today, the PC/laptop, coupled with the MP3 player, has displaced the hi-fi system for the most part.

Sources: Guardian, Emergic

Political Blogging Gets More Interesting with Age

The YearlyKos convention held by the liberal blog Daily Kos last week attracted a lot of media attention -- and not merely because of the high-profile Democrats who showed up. YearlyKos was cited by many pundits as one more sign of the mainstreaming of bloggers in the political arena, and the meeting of the digital and "real world" spaces. Surely, its only a matter of time before conservative blogs host a gathering of their own.

Political blogs have been making their presence known since the 2004 election (even though Daily Kos and other liberal blogs couldn't get John Kerry elected). Increasingly, the impact of political blogging is appearing in unexpected ways:

• The government of Iran is recognizing the potential power of blogging. It has reportedly gone so far to set up an "Office of Religious Blogs," through which bloggers can receive technical training and support (and obstenibly be "coached" to write pro-regime posts). The office claims to have trained 500 novice bloggers.


• Republican strategist Jack Burkman, who has appeared as a commentator on Scarborough Country and other political cable shows, has been accused of trying to solicit sex from a girl who was attending the recent DC Pride parade. The girl, who claims Burkman gave her his business card, blogged about the alleged encounter on MySpace.

RELATED: It wasn't blogging, but it's an example of how politics, sex and technology can get all jumbled up. When chatting with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl, former DHS press aide Brian Doyle said that President Bush was a "nice guy but not a good president ... he is not very bright and it is evident ... bush is a liar ... there were NO weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. total lie to go to war." Of course, with his real intention apparently being to seduce the "girl" (actually an undercover police officer), openly mocking his boss's boss would be the least of his worries... especially after he was arrested in April.

Coke + Mentos = Lessons in Viral Marketing

This summer's goofy craze -- fueled by as many as 800 videos posted online -- appears to be creating carbonic geysers by putting Mentos candies in bottles of soda. It's relatively cheap, if not completely clean fun, and even provides something of a science lesson. Some with a little too much time on their hands have already elevated the physical reaction into an art form.

Yet Mentos blasting is not all fun and games. According to the Wall Street Journal, the fad has resulted in about $10 million worth of publicity for Mentos. Coca-Cola, for whom $10 million in marketing is just a drop in a soda glass, is somewhat dubious about the phenomenon. As one rep from Coke was reported to have said of his product, "We would hope people want to drink it more than try experiments with it."

Hey, either way, people are buying the stuff. As online marketing consultant B.L. Ochman notes, Mentos demonstrates vividly the power of viral marketing. In this case, the publicity was positive, encouraging folks to become backyard scientists through a modest purchase of Mentos and Coke. But Ochman makes a more ominous observation: what if those 800 videos had been negative, encouraging people not to buy those products by illustrating a defect or a hazard? "Would most companies even have a clue of where to look for them?", she writes. "How many companies know how to monitor MySpace and other social media communities? It's a brand new world, and this story ought to be a heads up to every CMO who's still saying 'this social media stuff isn't important to us.'"

The answer: Probably very few. Most companies, though, have employees who understand social media, and who would likely be among the first to spot viral buzz surrounding their company's product or service. (They might even be aware of such tools as marktd, a digg-like marketing news site that allows users to share and "mark" articles that discuss trends in advertising, media, branding, event planning and public relations.) Such employees should be encouraged to present their findings to senior management... who, in turn, need to be made aware of online marketing and the impact it can have (just as they needed to be made aware of the Web a decade ago). Creating an executive-sponsored ad hoc team to monitor developments in viral media would be a cost-effective way to help companies stay on top of things online -- and either exploit positive development or be proactive about negative ones.

Additional strategies for reconciling marketing with the digital world are presented in this article from strategy+business.

UPDATE: The Motley Fool likewise slams Coke for misreading the Mentos craze.

UPDATE 2: Another reason why Coke shouldn't be so quick to dismiss this meme: Sales of Coke, Pepsi and other carbonated soft drinks were down across the board in 2005 -- the first major sales decline in 20 years.

Source: Smart Mobs

Google Searches the Government

Just in time to help celebrate our nation's independence, Google has unveiled a new type of searching freedom.

Google U.S. Government Search is a portal and search engine for a variety of government resources, from official White House and military releases, to third-party news stories (including non-U.S. sources) and blog postings. Users can even get a weather forecast for Washington DC (current conditions: sunny and 77°F).

Google U.S. Government Search is ideal for anyone needing to research government news and information, as ite appers to search a wider variety of content than other government-related portals.

Future of Media - Implications on eLearning

George Siemens blog pointed me to an article in Strategy + Business - The Future of Advertising is Now. This article focuses on how advertisers are finally beginning to shift their focus from traditional media towards online channels (and are behind the curve). But, it reminds of that we are likely behind the curve as well.

Making Intranet Discussion Groups Effective

An interesting article - 6 Steps to Effective Discussion Forums on your Intranet, but I don't necessarily agree with all of his ideas. Let me start with the first one, to have an effective discussion, you need critical mass. The problem for most forums starts (and ends) here.

I don't remember where I read this, but several people have found a similar 100-10-1 metric for forums. Out of 100 people in the rough target audience, 10 will sign-up and read forums, 1 will contribute. Thus, when the author talks about having 500 people in their company, if you use this really crude forum, you may only get 5 people who are active contributors. Not sure this will generate critical mass. Especially if the topics vary.

Second, he suggests attaching discussion to every page (much like how a blog works). Again, I'm not sure this is good practice. Discussion becomes too difuse and you don't reach critical mass.

I do agree with several all of his other points:

2. PROVIDE AN AGGREGATED, PRIORITIZED VIEW OF DISCUSSIONS.
3. INTEGRATE FORUMS WITH THE COMPANY DIRECTORY (no registration required)
4. STRIP THE INTERFACE TO THE BASICS.
5. SIGNAL PARTICIPANTS WHEN A POST IS MADE.
6. ENGAGE YOUR ORGANIZATION'S THOUGHT LEADERS.

I would also add that approaches like IBM's Jams where topics are raised to be discussed over relatively short windows with high visability will create interesting discussions. This is a way to overcome some of the critical mass issue.

However, I'd be surprised to find that many organizations with 500 employees are getting much value out of broad spectrum discussion forums as are described in his article. Maybe I'm wrong.

Choosing Media - Push vs. Pull - Part 1 of Many

I'm slowly beginning to prepare for some future presentations and slowly writing a couple of articles that discuss the impact of relatively newer developments in eLearning such as: Rapid eLearning, the Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids, eLearning 2.0, Podcasts, Wikis, Content Management, etc. I would welcome feedback on various related topics that I will be writing about over the next few weeks (hopefully its not months).

Let me start with a big one...Choosing Media. In other words, what combination of documents, web pages, emails, IM, SMS, video, audio, podcasts, vodcasts, Faxes, RSS feeds, telephone calls, direct mail, blogs, wikis, recorded presentations, etc., etc., etc. should I use?

Actually, let me start by avoiding the harry mess that is the question, "Does the media make a difference?" This question is a great way to generate an argument at any dinner table involving learning professionals. You will get to hear people on both sides arguing based on conclusive research across hundreds, maybe even thousands of studies. If you are interested, take a look at:

http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/html2002/ramage.html

I tend to avoid this theoretical debate as much as possible by pointing out that in the real world you have to choose your media, and they certainly not created equal.

I wish there was a simple formula for deciding this on a project, but instead for any project you use lots of rules of thumb, past experience, iterative design, and finally land on what you consider to be a reasonable mix. If it was easy, they wouldn't be paying us learning professionals so much money. Hmmm ... wait a minute ...

I tend to start my media choice by examing what my reasonable set of media choices might be in a particular situation. Often based on end-user characteristics, e.g., no audio on desktops, we can often narrow things down. In some cases, you quickly find that you have such limited choices that you are virtually forced into particular media. For example, Apple has used audio training for their remote sales force for years. For many years this was done by publishing Audio CDs that the sales force would listen to in their car. Now, they use Podcasts that they listen to on their iPods (naturally). The media choice is obvious given the limitations.

Given my list of media choices, I then generally think about media in terms of

• Kinds of teaching methods available given the media and its fit to my goals, learning design, etc.
  
• Efficiency of media in terms of providing quick support or quick transfer of information
  
• Ability to reach the audience

In this article, let me focus on that last item first. I normally segment my learning strategies fairly quickly into Push vs. Pull. This comes from marketing and Wikipedia tells us that Push-Pull is defined as:

In a "push" system the consumer does not request the content be sent; it is
"pushed at" the end-user. An example of this is a network television commercial.
TV viewers do not request to see a car advertisement; it is simply "pushed" at
them.

In a "pull" system the consumer requests the content and "pulls" it through
the delivery channel. An example of this would be a web search using a search
engine. The consumer performs a search for a specific car and information is
pulled up in response.

In the eLearning world, we use Push to indicate that we need to get the learners attention to notify them of information or to begin (or continue) transforming performance. We are reaching out to them. We use Pull to indicate that we are going to create resources that will be available to be found based on need.

In terms of media selection, the reality is that this is a spectrum of how able we are to grab the attention of someone and it is highly dependent on the behavior of the person. For example, we would generally consider putting up a web page on your intranet to be a pull approach. However, if this is a page that someone visits every day or every hour and your content is located in a highly visible place, then the reality is that this becomes a push strategy. Conversely, email is generally considered a push strategy. However, many users tune out emails from particular email addresses (like those from training) and thus you’ve not reached the audience.

Often we find that we will separate our overall design into separate problems of Reach and Teach (although Teach is a somewhat older term). This problem is actually more complicated because in many cases we are trying to do this iteratively, over time and reaching not only the primary audience but secondary audiences as well (e.g., managers).

So, what I really am doing is looking at the target audience and secondary audiences and asking first whether this is Push vs. Pull (Do I need to reach them, or will they come when they need it?). If it's push, then I ask

• How often do I need to Reach them?
• What media are available to Reach them?
• Will the media get their Attention? What can I do to improve Attention during Reach?

A couple years ago, the answer to this was often quite simple. 90% of push was email. 90% of pull was web pages or by putting content in my LMS. Actually, the pull side was probably 90% "Hey Joe" but I'm assuming that we are only counting places where we are trying to do more than that.

Now the answers here are more complicated. First, email is far less reliable in terms of using it as your sole means of Reach. Now you have to consider email in terms of how you will follow-up and escalate when it doesn't work.

We also have interesting technologies that play in here although today they still probably wouldn't be at the top of your list. You still should know about them:

• Telephony solutions - there are a variety of solutions that allow automated calling and leaving of messages. Your local AYSO (soccer) probably uses this to notify parents. So do your political candidates. Again, small today in corporate solutions, but a well timed vmail from a senior leader in the organization might be a great way to reach your audience.
  
• RSS Feeds (including Blogs) - I personally have not seen a company where enough individuals are using RSS readers to make this effective, but in a couple of years this is going to be important because of its unique place in between push and pull.
  
• Podcasting - Works well at Apple for sales people. I wonder if this wouldn't be a great way to hit distributed sales forces in a lot of organizations. Or maybe the Telephony solution + Podcasting.

Each of these represent possible avenues to consider.

For Pull based solutions, I'm pretty sure that other than the shift of content from being buried inside your LMS to being put on your intranet, most of Pull is being done as web pages.

I would very much welcome thoughts, comments, etc. on this post.

Next post on this topic will look more at effectiveness of media types during communication/teaching.

Disposable Film Cameras Survive in a Digital World

As we've noted before (here and here), the photographic film industry appears to be in its death throes, the buggy whip of the 21st century.  The growing prevalence of digital and phone cameras has driven down sales of traditional film to the point where film manufactures have either gone out of business or (in the case of the venerable Agfa brand) gone bankrupt.  Yet one bright spot remains for film:  Disposable cameras, which still enjoy healthy sales.

Disposable cameras offer that twin appeal of low cost and simplicity, appealing to the forgetful, impulsive, cheap and technophobic.  They're also ideal for rugged situations where one might be wary of taking an expensive digital camera.  Last year, 202 million digital cameras were sold in the US -- a strong and steady sales figure, considering that the film market as a whole is shrinking by 20% per year.  Even in tech-happy Japan, disposable film cameras remain popular.

Even this niche, however, will soon be threatened by improved camera phones, as well as disposable digital and video cameras.

Source:  CNN.com

Imagining Mobile Phones in 2015

Cell phones have evolved so much over the past couple of years that it's hard if not impossible to imagine what they'll be like in another decade.  But recently, 26 design students from London's Central St Martins College of Art and Design decided to take a crack at it, designing competing prototypes for mobile devices people might be carrying in 2015.

The students considered functional as well as technical issues in their designs, and were meant to complement the user's lives and be as simple and unobtrusive as possible.  Some designs incorporated phones into necklaces and rings, while others allowed callers to exchange aromas and light patterns.  Still others explored new design metaphors beyond the typical "clamshell" or "candybar," taking advantage of ultrathin technology to fold like paper or a small notebook.



Said course director Ben Hughes, "It was an area [the students] were interested in and they were very happy to get involved. They looked at mobile phone technology and how it's going to evolve with what 4G and even 5G can offer in terms of bandwidth and memory. There were also cultural and socio-economic factors, how our lives are changing and [how] the mobile phone evolves to fit that."

The competition was sponsored by Nokia, and the student who produced the winning design earned an internship with the mobile phone maker.  That student, Daniel Meyer, created a mobile phone that doubled as a digital tabletop picture frame -- perfect for the high-tech traveler seeking reminders of home.

Source:  Silicon.com

Wal-Mart to Customize Stores via Demographics

Until recently, Wal-Mart could enjoy growth and prosperity simply by offering a wide variety of goods at rock-bottom prices in its stores throughout the country.  But even Wal-Mart faces competitive pressure... and to that end the retail giant is seeking to customize its offerings based on demographic differences.

Wal-Mart has always been conscious of geographic differences (selling, for instance, more beach gear and storm supplies in Florida, and more snowblowers in Minnesota).  But now, Wal-Mart is using its wealth of sales and inventory data to segment based on demographics, allowing it to market to specific age, ethnicity and income brackets.

Stores in which the majority of shoppers are African-American, for instance, sell more entertainment products and fewer sporting goods; those with a Latino base feature lots of fresh produce and "farmers' market" events on weekends.  Some pilot stores that cater to high-income ($75,000+) customers have done well selling gourmet and organic foods, housewares and high-end electronics.  Stores that focus on older shoppers (age 45+) sell more pet supplies and fewer baby items and toys. 

Wal-Mart, however, isn't forgetting its roots in catering to lower- to middle-income consumers, many of them rural.  For these stores, Wal-Mart will continue to emphasize the "community social setting" aspect, in which the store serves as a hub for the community, with restaurants and other meeting places.

The challenge for Wal-Mart will come when the demographics in these stores overlap.  What, for instance, will high-income, older customers demand, or rural African-American shoppers?

Source:  CNN/Money

Relevance of the learning profession - In defense of ISD

Harold Jarche wrote an interesting article The relevance of the learning profession that received a fair amount of attention in various blogs. I've read it several times and I find myself agreeing, but also feeling that he's taken things too far...

The challenge for learning professionals will be to change their toolsets from prescriptive to supportive. For instance, in our informl learning unworkshops we’re trying to foster a community with the tools and connections needed to address that essential 80% of learning that is ignored by formal training and education. I really do not believe that formal approaches, like instructional systems design, will be able to help these learning needs.

I agree that we need to be looking for ways to support the "other 80%," but I disagree about the value of what we know from formal approaches, like ISD. One of the things I've pointed out in the past is that Informal Learning is Too Important to Leave to Chance. I don't claim to have the answer for how we can more systematically treat informal learning, but I strongly believe that much of what we know about human performance, analyzing behavior and performance, impacting behavior and performance, breaking content down, and I'm sure other aspects of ISD are quite applicable to a "supportive" model.

In fact, when I'm talking about Start with Courseware or With the Other Stuff? and the Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids, I'm certainly talking about providing support materials that are used as part of work. The design of these tools is certainly based on many of the same principles in ISD.

The other comments that struck me from Harold's article:

it’s the realisation that individuals now own the means of knowledge production.
In a knowledge economy, the individual is the knowledge creator and relationships are the currency.

Enabling learning is no longer about disseminating good content. Enabling learning is about being a learner yourself, sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm and then taking a back seat. In a flattened learning system there are no more experts, only fellow learners on paths that may cross.

While I think I understand what Harold is talking about here, I'm not sure that I agree that it goes this far. Maybe its just because of my perspective (and being so involved in technology) but I see that much of what we do these days is acquire and process information. We need the right information to get to us. And we need the right knowledge of what to do with the information to carry out our processing on that information. It's the knowlege economy.

Virtually everything I work on is all about this. One client needs systems to help with what amounts to matchmaking (finding the right people, knowing what to do once you've figured out who they are). Another client needs systems to help provide customer satisfaction information in actionable form and then help with how to improve the results.

This doesn't really feel at all like ... "fellow learners." It feels like good old help getting your job done. Am I missing something?

Businesses Must Innovate to Balance Customer Service with Turnover

All businesses, naturally, strive to offer superior customer service. But that will be difficult in the coming years as, if predictions by the Herman Group and other HR consultants prove to hold up, employee turnover increases.

With more job openings available, workers have a powerful incentive to "job-hop" for better salary and benefits. Employees are also increasingly reluctant to work long hours; if anything, they're looking for jobs with fewer hours and better work-life balance. As a result, employers risk being short-staffed and unable to properly serve customers.

Herman predicts that some employers will respond by over-staffing -- reversing the downsizing and outsourcing trends -- yet will use innovative approaches to help keep costs down and productivity high. Among these, hiring workers on a "stand-by" basis, perhaps having them work only a couple of days per week, then paying them a reduced stand-by wage on the days they don't work. This would give workers greater job security and freedom, yet would allow an employer to ramp up quickly when needed without paying full wages to workers who aren't carrying a full workload. Employers might also rotate workers more aggressively, moving them where the labor is needed. Yet others might, in essence, create their own temporary worker pools in the way that schools manage pools of substitute teachers.

UPDATE: Recruiting is reportedly becoming highly competitive in the venture capital space, with technical and management talent in increasingly tight supply. In response, specialized recruitment websites for VCs are appearing.

Finding Diamonds with Zeppelins

From the "everything old is new again" file, the diamond producer De Beers is using zeppelins to scan the landscape of Botswana for rock formations that could contain diamonds.

The $9 million zeppelin, owned and operated by Bell Geospace, is helping De Beers spot "kimberlite pipes, " volcanic rock formations that might contain diamonds (emphasis on might, as only one in 10 contain diamonds). Kimberlite pipes are hard to spot on the ground, but aerial surveying makes locating them easier.

Use of the zeppelin, in service since November, comes at a pivotal time for De Beers, as the diamond industry is becoming increasingly competitive. Most of Botswana's obvious diamond deposits have been tapped out, and the European Union has broken up much of De Beers' monopolistic advantage. Considering the legacy of dirigible technology, both the scanning technology and the results are so secret that De Beers won't discuss them in depth, and restrict photographs.

Source: CNN.com

What is Rapid eLearning?

Based on my recent posts about the Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids, I was asked if this isn't just "Rapid eLearning" - a term that simultaneously is good and bad.

First the good. Rapid eLearning is on the mark in terms of the demands on learning professionals - Learning Trends Point To and Shape eLearning 2.0 - the heart of which are the following needs:

• Very fast transfer
• Occurred in short bursts w/o leaving the workplace
• Fast to develop (and low cost)
• Had real impact on performance

Another post that discusses this is: The Driver for Rapid eLearning. In it Rick Nigol talks about the same kinds of drivers and he discusses approaches to rapid eLearning in terms of tools, people and process.

Now the bad news. The term "Rapid eLearning" has taken on a life of its own and now normally means:

rapid creation of courseware by people who are less experienced with
courseware development particularly subject matter experts

and if you are around the industry much, you realize that it's been taken over by two main types of solutions: PowerPoint -> Courseware and Form-based Authoring tools. This is only the tools portion of what Rick discusses in his post.

eLearning Guild's Research Report on Rapid eLearning talks about how hot this topic is, but then you get things like a recent blog post by Gabe Anderson of Articulate:

Of course, Articulate has long been at the forefront of the industry, setting the standard in PowerPoint to Flash conversion ... rapid development authoring tools have become synonymous with the very concept of rapid e-learning. And Articulate is the global leader in rapid e-learning.

Ergo, Articulate is rapid e-learning.

I don't fault Gabe for saying that "rapid development authoring tools" are synonymous with "rapid e-learning." Unforuntately, that's mostly what people are saying when they use the term.

Why do I say "unfortunately?" Well I think we all know the answer. Giving a SME a tool that lets them create PowerPoint + Audio and maybe a question or two, well that's certainly fast and low cost. And I'm sure there are good examples of using this effectively. But it only hits one of the four needs that I listed above. In particular, it fails with:

• Very fast transfer
  
  Often you have to sit through long, boring presentations waiting for interesting points to be made. Cmon we all just leave the thing running in the background while we go back to our real work. At least one of the tools on the market allows you to put the presentation in fast forward mode and adjusts the speaker's voice so that it still sounds good. That's at least a little faster. Transfer? Hardly.
  
• Occurred in short bursts w/o leaving the workplace
  
  Again, these are normally not handled as short-bursts. But, we could try to get our SMEs to create shorter presentations.
  
• Fast to develop (and low cost)
  
  Does this well.
  
• Had real impact on performance
  
  Yeah, right.

I could tell you what I would like rapid eLearning to mean, but that's pointless. They've already taken the term. I just now need to figure out how to differentiate Reference Hybrids and other models from rapid eLearning.

Blended learning - no shape, theory, methodology or best practice?

A good post by Donald Clark - Blended learning - a sugar coated pill where he suggests that Blended learning is code for coping with a change in the model. While we've been doing blends for years, certainly the use of the term and the composition of the blends is changing. One example of that I discuss in: Start with Courseware or With the Other Stuff?

As we see the shape of things begin to change, I'm concerned as is Donald when he tells us the term "blended learning" has "no defined shape, theory, methodology or best practice."

Is this then similar to Informal Learning is Too Important to Leave to Chance where we need our design models to catch up to the demands of the world of learning?

Training - Serve Them Coffee! Meetings - Don't?

The research is in: Drinking coffee makes you more open-minded. [Found via - Knowledge Jolt.] The important findings...

Previous studies have show that consuming caffeine can improve one’s attention and enhance cognitive performance, with 200 milligrams (equivalent to two cups of coffee) being the optimal dose.

Moderate doses of caffeine can also make you more easily convinced by arguments that go against your beliefs, say Pearl Martin of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and her colleagues.

Perfect for training situations! But ...

people who gulp down lattes at business meetings may want to reconsider how the drink is affecting them, the authors suggest.

Yeah, we wouldn't want open-minded people at meetings. :)

Sony Debuts "Robotic Stores"

Some will call them vending machines, but Sony is calling their new line of automated retail devices "robotic stores."  Naming aside, the goal is to make buying digital cameras, MP3 players and other tech gadgets as easy -- and as impulsive -- as buying a pack of gum.

The kiosks, manufactured by San Francisco-based Zoom Systems, are being piloted in malls in Georgia, Colorado and California.  Through them, consumers can purchase cameras, batteries, MP3 players, memory sticks, CDs and DVDs using a credit or debit card.  In addition to supplying the kiosks, Zoom will provide restocking and maintenance service.

Sony sees the kiosks as a less-expensive alternative to storefronts, allowing them to get their products in front of customers at a variety of locations -- malls, airports and grocery stores, to name a few.  Additionally, Sony hopes to capitalize on immediate gratification by making their products so convenient.

The strategy seems to be directly opposite to that of Dell, which is experimenting with stores that don't carry inventory, but where customers can see and handle products before placing an order that will be delivered to their homes.  Dell will place these new stores in upscale malls, in direct competition with the highly successful Apple retail outlets that have appeared over the last several years.

Source:  New York Times (via CNET)

Laptops in the Classroom: Good or Bad?

As both an attendee and presenter at meetings, I have a good idea of how many people who type away on laptops during presentations are taking studious notes... and how many are checking their e-mail, IM'ing their friends, surfing the Web or playing games.  Here's a hint:  The note-takers are in the minority.

With more students bringing laptops into classrooms, teachers and professors have the same sneaky suspicions.  So much so that some faculty are urging the banning of wireless Internet and even laptops themselves from classes.  Among the schools considering such a ban are Harvard Law School, which may institute a crackdown when students return this fall.

In addition to students who find their laptops a distraction, many professors feel that laptops' presence inhibits class participation and student interactivity.  Some have proposed blocking wireless Internet from classrooms... but on many campuses, this is no longer feasible technically.  Individual professors who have banned laptops from their classes claim that they have received few complaints and that their students get more out of the classes.  But is this unfair to the students who actually use their laptops to take notes?

With laptops becoming less expensive -- and initiatives such as One Laptop Per Child that advocate computer technology for everyone, everywhere -- laptop use will become an expectation among ever younger students.  How will this conflict with instructors who see laptops as a threat?  Will educators try to incorporate technology more into the classroom experience, or will the classroom become a "tech-free zone" that emphasizes human interaction, with laptops and other devices reserved for distance learning?

And for those who doubt that students are doing anything other than productive work while in class, watch this video clip...

Source:  TaxProf Blog

Blowing Up ADDIE? And Availability in Learning Design.

Brent Schlenker's blog in an article entitled More BW on Web2.0 and Blowing up the ADDIE model pointed me to a whitepaper by Neil Lasher entitled The 4A’s of Learning Design. Brent's post and the whitepaper both point out that we need to look at learning design differently in the age of the need for rapid learning design and The Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids.

While Neil's whitepaper is somewhat underwhelming because it doesn't give much prescription on how to accomplish rapid learning design, it does point out how eLearning Courseware that relies heavily on present-review models are often not great design.

The other really great point that struck me was the simple way he cast the issue of "availability." In particular he suggests that we design for (a) learn, use and forget and (b) always re-findable. I would ask if putting content in courseware buried in an LMS is ever going to meet these two requirements.

Good stuff Brent and Neil.

Invasion of the Zombies!

Is your Windows PC a zombie?  (Hold your tongues, Mac users!)  Microsoft thinks there's a very good chance it could be.

Statistics compiled by Microsoft's Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, 60% of the Windows systems scanned between January 2005 and March 2006 had some kind of "backdoor" Trojan malware installed, which could allow a malicious user to take control of them without the authorized users' knowledge -- in effect, turning them into "zombies." 

In some cases, zombie computers are used to attack other systems.  In others, they allow a cracker access to the computer's data.  Typically, Trojans are spread through adware or viruses.  According to Microsoft figures, Trojans far outnumbered other types of security breaches, including e-mail worms and rootkits. 

These numbers suggest that we have a long way to go in the battle for digital security.  As new digital devices appear, and as more of these devices interact digitally and exchange valuable data, the prevalence of malware is going to become an exponentially increasing problem.

Source:  ZDNet

Employers Googling Job Candidates... And Often, They Don't Like What They See

With the post-graduation hiring season in full swing, young job seekers might want to take care what they post about themselves on their MySpace profiles or blogs.  Increasingly, Web-savvy employers are searching for information on prospective candidates.  And often, what they find gives them pause.  Consider this example:

When a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company's president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois.

At Facebook, a popular social networking site, the executive found the candidate's Web page with this description of his interests: "smokin' blunts" (cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana), shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in vivid slang.

It did not matter that the student was clearly posturing. He was done. "A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have?" said the company's president, Brad Karsh. "Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly?"

Oops. College students entering the "real world" have always known that the lifestyles and laid-back norms they've enjoyed before are less than welcome in the workplace.  But with more people of all ages posting personal information online, the variances between college life and corporate life are becoming more pronounced.  Perhaps schools need to stress more strenuously the reality that one's seemingly innocent actions can have repercussions years later.  But then again, if an employer objects to something that's a fundamental part of your personality, is that someplace you really want to work anyway?

Secondly, this is one more nail in the coffin of our traditional notion of privacy.  If someone can learn volumes about your personal life by surfing the Web, is that an invasion of privacy?  Not if what they find is material that you yourself posted for others to read...

Source:  International Herald Tribune

Take My "CrackBerry," Please!

The addictive nature of BlackBerry devices has earned them the nickname "CrackBerries."  For its guests who want to go cold turkey (for a little while, anyway), the Sheraton Chicago Hotel will lock up their BlackBerries so they can try new and different things -- like actually interacting with people.

The hotel does not charge for the service, and guests can request their BlackBerries back anytime they want (then again, those really bent on kicking the habit might try leaving the bloody things home).  It would be interesting to learn the longest -- and shortest -- times that the hotel has been asked to hold a BlackBerry in protective custody.  For such a predicament says more about our 24/7 work culture than the devices themselves.

Source:  CNN.com

Start with Courseware or With the Other Stuff?

Dave Boggs recent post No eLearning Tectonic Plate Shift Here had some interesting comments about my article Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids. He seems to see the same thing, but claims that it has always been this way. Has it? Or is there something different now?

Now I know that Tony is an academic, and he's probably teaching at a University and doing consulting, but ...

I always worry when someone labels you "an academic" because it sounds like they think you don't work in the real world. Since Dave and I don't really know each other I have no idea if he means it in any particular way. Dave, just as a heads up. I was a professor of Computer Science and Multimedia for 10 years but had to leave when my company started to grow. I continue to write, speak and sometimes teach, but I'm much more of a hands on developer of eLearning Solutions than "an academic." I helped build two companies in the multimedia training world and then started my company, TechEmpower, and grew it when it became clear that the web (online learning) meant that people would need help with strategy, selection, integration, and development. Because of my dual background in hard-core systems and human performance, I've had a chance to work on some pretty interesting things. As an example, for the first four years of eHarmony's (the marriage matching site) existance, I was essentially a part-time CTO. I've worked with a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies on different eLearning projects and regularly network with folks at these companies who are active with defining technical direction for eLearning. So, when I'm talking about trends, that's where I'm coming from.

what he is talking about is NOT some grand revelation that has just started and he is certainly not the first one to see it.

Its a natural progression for a company to start with the courseware scenario, and then move to adding other elements. I am not saying its right or wrong, its just what I have seen happen most of the time at corporations.

I wouldn't necessarily claim that anything I write about is a "grand revelation" nor would I say that I'm claiming to be "the first one to see it" - it's hard to ever claim that. When Dave says "it's a natural progression ... start with the courseware, and then move to adding other elements ... " is simultaneously making my point and missing the bigger picture.

Three years ago, most every company would follow the pattern courseware -> other elements. In other words, the general model was to build eLearning solutions by thinking about the courseware first and secondarily think about the leave-behind materials, e.g., online job aids, help, etc. Why did we start with courseware? Well that's what most people were thinking about at the time. You had your LMS in place. You built your courseware and tracked it with your LMS. You STARTED with the COURSEWARE.

Today, I see more and more companies STARTING WITH THE OTHER STUFF. We may not even produce courseware. It may not get tracked under the LMS.

And, I'm not so sure that this is as obvious as Dave would have you think. After all, take a look at what Bersin suggests in his Four Stages - eLearning Technology: Leading with an LMS - Harmful to Your Health (or Skipping Stages in Bersin's Four Stage Model), or an article in CLO about on demand information eLearning Technology: Tools for On-Demand Information - An LMS? or the recent article in Learning Circuits - eLearning Technology: The Real HCM Maturity Model ... all of these suggest the LMS and courseware as the center of the eLearning universe. If all you did was read these articles, you might very well find yourself starting with Courseware still.

I would also say that Tony mentions wiki use for reference material -- well again, he is pushing a philosophy there which has yet to translate into the collective training/learning gestalt of most corporations who are thinking about e-Learning.

Well we do agree on this. Today, you are more likely to find people building the other stuff with Dreamweaver, RoboInfo, MS Word, their company CMS or by hand than with a Wiki. But, if you haven't really started doing this yet - I would highly recommend looking at Wiki technology. It will lower your barrier to using these techniques significantly. And will lower your ongoing maintenance costs as well.

I'm realizing that Dave likes loaded terms "an academic" ... "pushing a philosophy" ... I certainly am suggesting that you seriously consider what I'm saying the next time you are thinking about a learning solution. There are too many variables to know if this approach will be right for you in your particular case. And thank goodness for that, because you might need to hire someone like me (or Dave) to help you figure out how to to approach things in your particular situation. But is it worth considering?

My comments are turned on, I welcome your thoughts on this. Or post in your blog and let me know about it. :)

E-mail 2.0

To paraphrase that old adage about the weather, everyone complains about e-mail, but no one ever does anything about it. E-mail has become a technology that we couldn't live without in our business and personal lives... yet it's rife with spam, viruses and fraud. In fact, one estimate places the amount of spam at 90% of all e-mail traffic!

In response, Kelly Martin of SecurityFocus makes the modest proposal that the backbone of our e-mail system, Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), is fundamentally broken and should be scrapped. Designed to be used by a handful of engineers and geeks, SMTP was excellent at what it was designed for -- and is, indeed, the reason why e-mail has evolved into such a successful medium. But it wasn't designed for security or accountability, and patchwork attempts to make it so can't keep up with the threats.

To that end, Martin proposes developing a new e-mail system that incorporates a high level of security (encryption, compression, secure identities and public-private-key authentication), along with peer-to-peer instant messaging and videoconferencing. The system would be open, of course -- and there, Martin is realistic about the difficulty in getting the various commercial e-mailers to adopt it.

Similar proposals have been made before and have gone nowhere, in part because the existing e-mail system is so firmly entrenched. Yet the demand and the know-how is there. The open source community could rally resources and expertise just as it did to create Linux, and enterprises and commercial operators would certainly welcome a spam-free protocol. Perhaps what's needed is a spark of some kind, whether from a handful of determined developers, an innovative company, or a government body.

Source: The Register

LA Cops Use Drone Aircraft to Catch Crooks

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- otherwise known as drones -- have made their mark in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, allowing our military to spot and even destroy the enemy from a safe distance. Now, UAV technology is being considered by US law enforcement for surveillance and rescue operations.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has begun testing a 6-foot long, 4-pound, battery-powered UAV called the SkySeer that can be carried by an individual officer, assembled within five minutes, and can transmit video in real time. Far cheaper and more discrete than helicopter surveillance, the SkySeer will be used to pinpoint the location of fugitives or injured people needing rescue. It can also fly into highly dangerous situations without risk to lives or heavy equipment.

Currently, LA sheriffs only have a single prototype SkySeer. If all goes well, they hope to increase that number, and also develop a web portal to allow other law enforcement officers and subject matter experts to view real-time SkySeer video from any location.

Source: BBC

Death Forecast

Maybe this is a bit morbid, but its quite an interesting little tool.

It also reminds me that I'll need to write more about using tools as part of eLearning Solutions sometime within the next 43 years (how long I have to live).

As a suggestion to this tool, they really should have a series of specific suggestions keyed off of each question to suggest activities that you should take to improve your life expectancy (assuming that's our goal). Better yet would have been to support creating an Action Plan. We;ve used these techniques quite successfully on several projects to help move people towards best practice behaviors.

Leading with an LMS - Harmful to Your Health (or Skipping Stages in Bersin's Four Stage Model)

I recently was piling through my stack of magazines and ran across an article in Training & Development Magazine that reference "the stages of eLearning" from a Josh Bersin report. Unfortunately, the article is only available to ASTD members and via registration at Bersin's site. The stages are:

Stage 1: Getting Started - Cost savings, off-the-shelf, LMS implementation
Stage 2: Expansion - Blended learning, rapid e-learning, greater use of LMS, custom courses
Stage 3: Integration and Alignment - Governance, HR integration, performance management
Stage 4: Learning on Demand - LCMS, performance support, search

This is similar to the stages I pointed to in my article The Real HCM Maturity Model. And, though I understand what Josh is going for in the model, I think that it is more a model of what people have done rather than what you should do.

First, Stage 1 should not include "LMS implementation." I think this is often the biggest mistake that people make. You don't need an LMS to do eLearning. And if you are early on, chances are that going after an LMS can be a really tough way to get started. Alternatives are described in my article Tracking Without an LMS. If, as Josh suggests, you only need off-the-shelf courses, then you likely can use your providers' LMS implementation. That will be enough of a learning experience to understand why I don't want you to "lead with an LMS."

Second, I would suggest that you follow the Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids and skip right to Stage 4 (minus the LCMS). In other words, pick up a Wiki tool, or RoboInfo or Dreamweaver and start to build online reference solutions with integrated search first. Maybe you'll create a hybrid solution with some integrated Captivate movies. But if anything the LMS will get in your way of doing this.