Sales Paradox (Alertbox Aug. 2000)
In the future, branding will be replaced by reputation managers as the way users decide where to do business on the Web. Whenever you go to a website, a flag will appear on your screen to indicate whether that company has treated previous customers well or poorly. Similar with banner ads (if any survive that long): all ads will be stamped with an independent rating advising you whether the offer is genuine and worth checking out. Bye, bye deceptive advertising.

Reputation managers will make users feel as safe doing business with a small, unknown company as with the largest corporation. In fact, since small companies usually offer better customer service, they will benefit the most from the shift from branding to reputation.

The usability barrier will also be lowered as more sites recognize the need for simplicity and user-centered design. Following the basic rules of Web usability will be another great equalizer.

[Jay] This will apply to time-consuming experiences like eLearning in spades. I want it now! Let the voice of the learners be heard!
posted by jay cross at 8/7/2000

 
moved...
posted by jay cross at 8/7/2000

 

Schizo tech and AOL

jay @ 05-Aug-00

SCHIZOPHRENIC USERS As we enter the next generation of information architecture, some of the Internet's pioneering companies, such as America Online (AOL) , will find themselves saddled with their current Web-based interfaces. They won't work. A television is neither a radio with pictures (as it was first described) nor a diskless computer (as computer makers describe it today). Just as a car is not a horseless carriage, a car is also not a browser with wheels. New Internet devices and applications are different not only because they are designed to do different things, but also because the mindset of the person who uses them influences the kind of interaction that makes sense. You cannot shove a Web page onto a cell phone's tiny screen. Even if you could, it wouldn't make sense from the user's point of view. The information I want delivered to my cell phone is different from what I want on my home computer. Web pages are designed for sedentary, reflective use. The phone is for urgent, short communications. As Microsoft (MSFT) 's Rick Beluzzo put it at The Standard's recent Internet Summit, we are entering an era of "technology schizophrenia," where the same person takes on a different profile and personality with every device and application he uses. Each user takes on a role appropriate to the device, and the roles have different requirements for depth of information, timeliness, interactivity and speed. You will need a different information interface for each role surfers play. The Standard

TR-DEV

jay @ 03-Aug-00

This message actually made it onto TR-DEV today: Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 01:18:51 -0700 From: Jay Cross <jaycross@INTERNETTIME.COM> Subject: Tragedy of the Commons Despite my background in e-Learning, community-building, and social sciences, I'm perplexed by an issue that often crops up in open communities such as this one. What can one do to tone down a self-aggrandizing individual who drowns out the voice of others by dominating the conversation? Can anyone suggest an effective way to inform a boor trolling for customers that the world is not interested in his opinion on *every* issue?

Learning quotes

jay @ 01-Aug-00

"He then learns that in going down into the secrets of his own mind he has descended into the secrets of all minds." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire." - William Yeats "The real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions." - Bishop Creighton "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning today is young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young." - Henry Ford "Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know - and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance. It is better to know - even if knowledge endures only for the moment that comes before destruction - than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before us in all its wonder." - Issac Asimov "Men learn while they teach." - Seneca "It is always the season for the old to learn." - Aeschylus "A little learning is a dangerous thing: Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." - Alexander Pope "Try to learn something about everything and everything about something." - Thomas Huxley "Learn to unlearn." - Benjamin Disraeli

for the what's going on paper

jay @ 23-Jul-00

Cappelli lays out a clear and convincing argument that a much less predictable force has replaced the traditional employment relationship. He calls this the market-driven relationship. Power shifts between employer and employee, based on conditions in the labor market, and every person and function within an organization, are now exposed to the pressures of the market. Hence, both skills and people become highly mobile and highly poachable. Companies invest less in developing their employees through learning programs because they don’t want to lose their investment. Retention rates are miserably low. Pfeffer agrees that the market-based economy is affecting people management. Who could deny it? But Pfeffer thinks that most of the ‘new deal’ practices that Cappelli cites are dead-end policies for companies to follow, particularly such widely followed practices as relying on temporary and contract workers and cutting company-sponsored training programs. Through extensive quantitative evidence and qualitative case examples, Pfeffer builds a convincing case that people-centered management is the key to organizational success. He gives a framework of interrelated management practices (employment security, selective hiring practices, development and learning programs, self-managed teams, high compensation contingent on performance, reduced status distinctions and barriers, and wide sharing of performance and financial information) that companies can follow to drive people-centered management.

MS5.5

jay @ 22-Jul-00

I just downloaded Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 from the web. I'm always installing the new stuff, all the while knowing that it is probably not ready for prime time. This latest version of Microsoft's browser immediately fires up a tutorial. Instead of the usual "one-size-fits-all" approach, I have choices: The basics introduces new users to the commonly used features of the Internet and the Internet Explorer feature of Windows. Getting your work done shows you how to do the most common browsing tasks. What's new guides you through what has changed since Internet Explorer 4.0 and Windows 98. Next steps provides you with a few final tips to send you on your way. This, my friends, is progress. IE 5.5 tour

from glassdop

jay @ 19-Jul-00

c|net, "The Computer Network" is going to buy out ZDnet, "Where Technology Takes You", for roughly $1.6billion in stock, combining the two largest online technology-oriented news sites into one, bigger, no-less-trustworthy site that will continue to favorably review sponsor's products and totally ignore everyone else. For its worthless stock, c|net gets all the ZDNet sites, including learning annex Smart Planet, and Computer Shopper magazine and its always helpful collection of ads.

Achtung!

jay @ 17-Jul-00

What's information really about? It seems to me there's something direly wrong with the "Information Economy". It's not about data, it's about attention. In a few years you may be able to carry the Library of Congress around in your hip pocket. So? You're never gonna read the Library of Congress. You'll die long before you access one tenth of one percent of it. What's important -- increasingly important -- is the process by which you figure out what to look at. This is the beginning of the real and true economics of information. Not who owns the books, who prints the books, who has the holdings. The crux here is access, not holdings. And not even access itself, but the signposts that tell you what to access -- what to pay attention to. In the Information Economy everything is plentiful -- except attention. Bruce Sterling, from a speech to the Library Information Technology Association, June 1992, San Francisco CA

research renewed?	jay @ 16-Jul-00
I just found out I've been trying to add to a file on BEST. is this working now that it's on interland, as it should be?

from a dying blog

jay @ 24-Jun-00

Short attention span theater jay @ 05-May-00   In the 1970s, the Navy did a study to find out how long people can listen to other people talk. The objective was to best use the time of instructors and students throughout the Navy's education system. The answer surprised a lot pf people. The answer awas not an hour or even half an hour. The answer was just 18 minutes. If you have something worth saying, let your conviction and enthusiasm show. Boil your message-grabber-takeawy to 8 seconds. The strongest start of all is silence. from Tee Articulate Executiveby Granville N. Toogood    from Dave Winer jay @ 29-Apr-00   "I know the rent is in arrears. The dog has not been fed in years. It's even worse than it appears."    http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q131/1/09.asp jay @ 28-Apr-00   is this hard to believe or what?

The Experience Economy e-Learner

jay @ 22-Jun-00

"I keep telling [those interested in Southwest Airlines] that the intangibles are far more important than the tangibles in the competitive world because, obviously, you can replicate the tangibles. You can get the same airplanes. You can get the same ticket counters. You can get the same computers. But the hardest thing for a competitor to match is your culture and the spirit of your people and their focus on customer service because that isn't something you can do overnight and it isn't something you can do without a great deal of attention every day in a thousand different ways. That is why I say that our employees are our competitive protection." "Staging experiences is not about entertaining customers; it's about engaging them" -Pine and Gilmore <i>And e-Learning is not about training staff; it too is about engaging them.</i> Customers don't buy products, they buy benefits. The authors have shown that the benefits of most value to customers are experiences, especially those that are transforming. Transformations are what all of us are looking for: experiences that change us for the better. Gilmore and Pine maintain that in the coming century, companies that provide us with transformational experiences will rule the roost. Pine and Gilmore explain what it means to systematically design for experience, when "the customer IS the product."

Make Success Measurable!

jay @ 22-Jun-00

I believe you will benefit from this book because the challenge of setting and achieving performance goals has become very confusing". Douglas K. Smith writes, "It has been more than 30 years since Peter Drucker wrote about the importance of managing for results. His work led to the widespread practice of management by objective. But an awful lot has happened in the past 30 years. The world of business and organizations has changed dramatically, turning many of Drucker's specifics (though not his wisdom) upside down. In the aftermath of total quality, customer service, time-based competition, strategic alliances, globalization, reengineering, core competencies, continuous improvement, innovation, teams, horizontal organization, benchmarking, best place to work, information technology, diversity, environmentalism, deregulation and reregulation, eCommerce, and privatization, those of us left standing in today's organizations are unsure about what performance goals and outcomes make the most difference and why. We know that setting performance goals is key to managing ourselves and others, but we no longer know how". ten management principles as the heart of any successful change effort: 1. Keep performance results the primary objective of behavior and skill change. 2. Continually increase the number of individuals taking responsibility for their own change. 3. Make sure that each person always knows why his or her performance and change matters to the purpose and results of the whole organization. 4. Put people in a position to learn by doing and provide them with the information and support they need just in time to perform. 5. Embrace improvisation as the best path to both performance and change. 6. Use team performance to drive change whenever demanded. 7. Concentrate organizational designs on the work that people do, not on the decision-making authority they have. 8. Create and focus energy and meaningful language because these are the scarcest resources during periods of change. 9. Stimulate and sustain behavior-driven change by harmonizing initiatives throughout the organization. 10. Practice leadership based on the courage to live the change you wish to bring about. Finally, he argues that if you expect others to change their behavior, you have to change yours. It's as simple and as hard as that. Doug Smith at Amazon

Behaviorism

jay @ 21-Jun-00

In 1913, in one of the most famous lectures[3] in the history of psychology, John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)[4], a 35-year-old "animal behavior man" from Johns Hopkins University, called for a radical revisioning of the scope and method of psychological research.: "Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviorist's total scheme of investigation."[5] Behaviourism: The Early Years

The Memories of Youth, Fading Fast<

jay @ 18-Jun-00

New York Times, June 6, 2000 Considering how hard it is for many people to remember what they did even the day before, it is remarkable that so many childhood memories remain intact. But now a new study shows that many of those memories may be, at best, suspect. Researchers at Northwestern University, recalling a study they did in the 60's of 73 boys asking all manner of questions about their lives, decided to ask them the same questions. Only this time, the "boys" were an average of 48 years old. Writing in The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the researchers said they had found wide disparities between how the boys described their teenage years and how the 67 men they found recalled them. On the most basic issues, there was often no correlation between the two sets of answers. "To our surprise," said Dr. Daniel Offer, a professor of psychiatry, "they just didn't know. They had no idea what they said. They thought they were telling us what they felt then." In a few limited areas, subjects gave similar answers, including about their fathers' salaries and their own earning hopes. On everything else, though, all bets were off. And no pattern seemed apparent: on some issues, they remembered life as being better, on others, worse.In a few limited areas, subjects gave similar answers, including about their fathers' salaries and their own earning hopes. On everything else, though, all bets were off. And no pattern seemed apparent: on some issues, they remembered life as being better, on others, worse. In the 60's, for example, 28 percent of the boys said they did not like homework or school; later, 58 percent said they did not like them. On the other hand, whlle 82 percent of the boys said they were disciplined physically, only 33 of the men said they had been. When confronted with the discrepancies between their first and second answers, some men were skeptical. "They argued with us," he said. "They said, `No, that's not true.' " In the 60's, for example, 28 percent of the boys said they did not like homework or school; later, 58 percent said they did not like them. On the other hand, whlle 82 percent of the boys said they were disciplined physically, only 33 of the men said they had been. When confronted with the discrepancies between their first and second answers, some men were skeptical. "They argued with us," he said. "They said, `No, that's not true.' "

Esther says...

jay @ 18-Jun-00

Esther Dyson & Brook Manville Brook: “So what about the technology revolution. What’s really going to be different in the future regarding learning? Esther: “Well where we are today is obviously still pretty primitive. The future will show that stuff like CD-ROM courses will not be very significant. Learning doesn’t go on online; it goes on in your head. The real impact will be things like just-in-time learning approaches and performance support. Audiences like sales people, things like building motivation. What you’ll see—and what we already see—is technology helping to do the rote, unimaginative tasks, and freeing people to do the value-added human things. With technology, the FedEx guy can stop worrying about the package and spend more time smiling and talking to customers. And that’s important learning. Learning is about reassembling mental models. That’s still going to be a people thing. Brook: “OK, let’s finish up with some advice. If one is interested in this topic, what are three things to consider or focus on in charting the future? Esther: “Well…first, I just want to reemphasize the need to focus on the people who teach and learn—really understand the human processes and only then how they use technology to augment them. Second, anything that helps rearrange mental models will be important. Simulations are very promising, but there will be other things too. Third, people have to understand the need to invest in themselves, and begin conscious programs to manage their own professional destinies. We’re going to see more codification of skills and competences as the whole employment market becomes more ‘liquid.’ Emphasis on portability. Technologies and structures that facilitate the talent market for skills will be critical.” LiNE Zine

Bob Galvin at ASTD

jay @ 16-Jun-00

I've been plowing thru tape recordings of ASTD sessions, generally happy that I didn't waste an hour apiece on them. The session with Bob Galvin, 77-year old former chairman of Motorola, was different. Interviewed by protogee John Cone, now at Dell, Galvin discussed his common-sense but uncommon approach to supporting corporate learning. One evening he was contemplating what it took to whip the competition. Being an athletic guy, he considered sports analogies. He concluded that the team with the best players wins. It's a function of individuals. The better they're trained, the better they are. Training is a savings, not a cost, in the eye of any but the most short-sighted. Trainers talk of getting management "buy in." Wrong. They need to believe in it, not get conned into it. The best way to learn is to teach. Make your managers teach. Leaders are special. By leaders, Bob means those who break the mold and create the future. He thinks they need a month of education a year minimum and another month of vacation. Bob's own learning is a quest for essence. He doesn't work at the detail level. If you understand what's essential, you don't need to. Key concepts in this are Saturation and Synthesis. When you become overloaded, it's time to pull things together. Bob's always writing...to learn.

Albert Mehrabian

jay @ 13-Jun-00

"A statistic about communication that is often quoted is the weight that receivers give to the different signals in the message. The figures are that we pay 7% of attention to verbal cues (what words used), 38% to vocal cues (how the words are spoken), and 55% to visual cues (body language etc). Where do these figures come from? "The original study was done by Albert Mehrabian at the University of California (UCLA) and contained in his book Silent Messages (1971). Merabian's research focused on inconsistent messages, and the figures relate to what signals we pay most attention to when the message from the different signals is inconsistent. For example, an employee says she loves your idea, but her voice is less than enthusiastic! The most believable aspects of the elements in the inconsistent message were: Verbal- 7% Vocal- 38%, Visual- 55%. In other words, where there is doubt about the truth of the message, people look and listen much more closely to the person delivering it. "Mehrabian has produced a number of books on non-verbal communication, the communication of emotions and attitudes, and one on The Tactics of Social Influence."

How Do eLearning Leaders Win in the Global Market?

jay @ 10-Jun-00

"We believe certain companies have been successful because they demonstrate the following winning attributes: · Solid reputation. Market leaders are known for superior quality and service, which enable them to be true training partners for their customers. · Full suite of courses and value-added services. Leaders in the global IT training market offer their clients a full range of training subjects at all levels of subject complexity, as well as a variety of learning services to help their clients manage all facets of skills acquisition and maintenance. · Global reach. When customers need training on a global scale, these large, multinational firms can deliver training anywhere in the world either by providing the services themselves or by partnering with leading local vendors. · Consistent quality. Similarly, market leaders ensure that each of their global locations offer customers the same level of high-quality courses and services. · Ability to demonstrate changes in business metrics as a result of learning activities. Foremost on client companies' minds when they contract for training is the return on investment. Vendors that clearly articulate their value proposition and are willing to work with their clients to demonstrate the training's positive impact on the clients' businesses not only serve the interests of the clients but also establish an unbreakable bond between client and provider. · Internet savvy. Training vendors that embrace the Internet as both a delivery vehicle and a sales channel will remain vital players in the new millennium. Few companies possess the full capabilities and resources necessary to satisfy all the requirements of IT training clients. We expect current market leaders and up-and-coming players, such as Sybase and DA Consulting Group, to continue to expand their capabilities either through acquisition or internal development. from IDC, April 2000

WRH	jay @ 07-Jun-00

Karl Fast, at Intranets 2000 in San Jose 2/2000

jay @ 30-May-00

There are the seven words you cannot say in this workshop (with apologies to George Carlin). We all know these words. They are empty, hollow, and thoroughly annoying words too often used with abandon and the very distinct sense that the person spouting them at you is doing so simply because they think these words make them sound important. Sure. The seven no-no words are, in alphabetical order: e-anything (except e-mail) enterprise (as in enterprise ready) IPO leverage paradigm (or paradigm-shift and other derivatives) robust synergy (or synergize and other horrors) ... Other words were considered for this list. It was a tough decision, but eventually the following words were rejected, despite their ability to drive otherwise normal people to the brink. action-items dot-com e-commerce enabled extensible portal prioritize revolutionary strategic scalable vortal virtual community wired JOHO

So you want to start a revolution -- Gnutella

jay @ 19-May-00

Only yesterday I was pondering what Open Source eLearning might look like. Today I'm wondering whether Gnutella might not serve as Open Source KM. E-Power to the People By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 18, 2000; Page A01 Two months ago, Justin Frankel created an ingenious little software tool that allows its users to bypass the dominant Internet companies and communicate directly among themselves. His bosses at America Online Inc., the biggest computing network of them all, were so impressed they tried to snuff it out of existence. Gnutella aficionados can trade files without going through a storage center, making it impossible to shut down the system without unplugging every computer on the network and difficult to control by laws because there's no central authority. Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of Netscape Communications and a former chief technology officer for AOL, compares Gnutella to a benevolent virus, a "revolutionary" program that spreads the power of publishing from an elite set of corporations to anyone who has a computer. "It changes the Internet in a way that it hasn't changed since the browser," Andreessen said. The decentralization of power that Gnutella represents has revived the romantic dream of many a cyberspace pioneer--that of a truly free realm where no information gatekeeper exists and where all property is commonly owned. But those who hope to profit handsomely from the Internet's transformation into a global marketplace--record companies, book publishers, movie makers and practically everyone else with a stake in selling information--regard Gnutella as a device for thievery. On a recent night, more than 10,000 machines were hooked up to the main Gnutella network and about 1.5 million files were available; those numbers continue to grow every day, and Gnutella's developers fervently believe that Gnutella will someday run through nearly every machine on the Internet. Members of a network using Gnutella software in essence form a search engine of their own that expands its search exponentially. When a Gnutella user has a query, the software sends it to 10 computers on the network. If the first 10 computers don't have the file, each computer sends it to 10 other computers and so on until, designers say, an estimated million computers would be looking for it in just five to 10 seconds. The program could theoretically check every site on the Web. Washington Post

Murray Gell-Mann on Innovative Thinking	jay @ 17-May-00
From a webcast of Gell-Mann sponsored by Enron this monring... Problem formulation often counts for more than problem solution. School always gives you the formulated problem; life does not. An economist is walking his granddaughter in the park when she spies a $20 bill on the sidewalk. "Grandfather, can I pick it up?" "No," he replies. "If it were there, someone would already have picked it up."

Learning up and down the supply chain	jay @ 10-May-00
A service that works What's the secret formula? Adding education or training to your Web site. If you educate your customers and prospects, make them more confident, and add to their interest, you'll not only get more sales, but sales of better, often higher-priced products as well. Upside

Grading the teachers & the schools

jay @ 08-May-00

This site is run by students for students. It's the Cluetrain Manifesto writ large. Students rate colleges, courses, and professors. What a grand concept! This was how I chose classes at b-school decades ago -- the school posted ratings of every professor and class. (Most schools are afraid of what they'd find.) Unfortunately, the TearcherReview ratings are suspect since anonymity is permitted. At least one prof is suing for slander. Check out your alma mater! Teacher Reviews site

Experience	jay @ 30-Apr-00
"Experience is a good teacher, but her fees are very high." W.R. Inge "We've upped our standards. Up yours." Pat Paulsen Timing is everything. Duration. Sequence. Context. Antecedents. Consequence. Awareness.

Business History	jay @ 25-Apr-00
Those who remeber the past are trapped by its boundaries? Corporate history sites: http://www.prologuegroup.com/Sites.html

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Content
Shifts to the Edges

By Clay Shirky

The message of Napster, the wildly popular MP3 "sharing" software, is plain: The Internet is being turned inside out.

Napster is downloadable software that allows users to trade MP3 files with one another. When someone requests a particular song, the Napster server initiates a direct file transfer from the user who has a copy of the song to the user who wants one. The program's success contradicts the rise of application service providers (ASPs) and the long-rumored death of the PC. Napster instead points the way to a networking architecture that re-invents the PC as a hybrid client/server while relegating the center of the Internet — where all the action has been recently — to nothing but brokering connections.

This is a complete violation of the Web's current "content at the center" data model, and Napster's success in violating it points the way to an alternative — "content at the edges." The content-at-the-center model has one significant flaw: Most Internet content is created on the PCs at the edges, but for it to become universally accessible, it must be pushed to the center, to always-on, always-up Web servers.

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I pity the suckers who respond to con games like this.

It's tempting to think, "Well, it's their own damned fault if they're so stoopid." Then I reflect on the elderly who lose their savings upon hearing a boiler-room stock tip. How many of them feel they have the "life experience" to warrant a degree and don't mind paying hundreds of dollars for recognition?

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Online Educational Delivery Applications: a web tool for comparitive analysis enables you to review comparisons of LMS vendors side by side. This has grate potential.

Link list

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from the TR-DEV list 3/28/00

Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 05:11:02 -0500

From: mark andrews

Subject: E-Learning - revolution?



Steve Madsen writes:

"Sorry to burst the bubble of members of this e-discussion list, but I
don't have an understanding of what should be the concern here. Why do we need to
get hung up in the meanings of such trivia? "E-anything" to me means the
lack of face to face interaction between two or more people."

My bubbles certainly not burst here, it's actually getting bigger.
'E-Business' is not just semantics, its a revolution, and nobody quite
understands what's going on. Dot Com companies have market capitalisation
values 10 times that of 'old world' companies despite having no physical
equity and never having made a profit.

Should 'e-learning' refocus educators, especially as was pointed out
earlier in the discussion; business competence training, towards the
revolution out there then trainers may be able to align themselves with
business, and not continue down old avenues represented by old terms.

Language reflects society, and it's rapid change indicates a rapid change
in the way we see and do things.

If a CEO is looking for a training solution, my guess he is likely to
search the internet with 'e-learning', rather than distance learning, which
he may associate with work books mailed once a semester. This will
directly affect many training providers' bottom lines if they start loosing
business because they are perceived as out of date.

I don't think this is trivia Steve, I think its very valid.

Mark Andrews

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i've installed "human click" on my e-learning page. a visitor clicks a button on the page and a doorbell rings on my machine. visitors don't respond to a "want to chat?" icon i can float on the page when they enter -- it's annoying. but some do check the box, saying they want to chat.

i'm going to have to move this thing further down the page. this morning's visitor clearly hit the button before reading anything. here's the conversation (in reverse chronological order):

ay: good bye

Visitor: ok thanks

Visitor: im working with school development in stockholm, sweden

jay: ah, you'll find information of interest further down the page. here's a section on design and a new article on the role of the learning guide.

Visitor: i mean as an instructor or designer

jay: "works with" meaning a learner? or a designer? or an instructor?

jay: by the way, what's your interest? who are you?

Visitor: what is the demands on a person who works with it?

jay: most common in technical training now (a natural). certaining a coming field. projected to become a $10+ billion industry within a few years.

Visitor: is it common?

jay: i think of it as accelerated, learner-focused competence improvement.

jay: e-learning is the topic of this page.... but, more useful to say that it's the convergence of training and the net.

Visitor: what is e-learning?

Visitor: good morning

jay: good morning

I find this text-chat business a little frustrating. I am really fast on the keyboard and writing notes back and forth entails a lot of waiting.

Several days later: few visitors request a chat. I've had only one or two requests -- and I was away at the time.

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Hi Jay,

I'd agree with your colleagues - it takes a special personality to want to
be available online for any question that comes up. It also (generally)
takes considerably less pay for guides then for instructors.

One of the best sources of guides (at least, on the second or third
go-round) is the students who have taken previous courses. They're apt to
have a more welcoming online tone, since they've been through the process
themselves recently.

Best,


Heather

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from Po Bronson's article on Danny Hillis in Wired 3/00: "Danny's mind has the
ability to scale to an extent I have never seen in another person. By scale I
invoke the conventional industry usage, that something works just as well in small
quantities or huge quantities as it does in the test-sample quantity. Danny can
scale down or scale up, and his brain never goes fuzzy with vertigo - he never
loses track of the levering mechanisms."

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Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn. --John Wesley

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March 14, 2000
Education: Web's New Come-On

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Commerce Sites See Online Courses as a Novel Way to Lure Shoppers
By LISA GUERNSEY

NYT Circuits


E-Commerce Sites See Online Courses as a Novel Way to Lure Shoppers

Michael Rosenfelt, the founder of notHarvard.com (notharvard.com), argues that the combination of courses and consumerism will be the next marketing wave to hit the Internet. "Education has always been at the basis of commerce," said Mr. Rosenfelt, who coined the term eduCommerce to describe the concept. "Sellers need to teach, and buyers want to learn."

But the companies involved are confident that adult students, their primary targets, will understand the value of these courses. NotHarvard.com is banking on the concept entirely. Instead of charging tuition, it is making deals with commercial Web sites that will offer the courses at no charge in an attempt to acquire new customers.

"We make no pretense that this is, in fact, a for-profit venture," said Mr. Rosenfelt, who once had the title "marketing weasel" on his business card.

By the end of February, the C++ course had attracted more than 2,000 students -- well over the 500-student limit per course. Many who did not sign up in time audited the course by reading lesson plans without posting any messages.

...when asked if such a course would ever replace computer courses offered by universities, Mr. Kornel was skeptical. "If you are paying for education, it is probably going to be written with a lot more forethought," Mr. Kornel said, adding, "I have not heard of any colleges saying, 'We'll give you credit for CodeWarriorU courses.' "

...when asked if such a course would ever replace computer courses offered by universities, Mr. Kornel was skeptical. "If you are paying for education, it is probably going to be written with a lot more forethought," Mr. Kornel said, adding, "I have not heard of any colleges saying, 'We'll give you credit for CodeWarriorU courses.' "


http://www.notharvard.com/
http://www.smartplanet.com/
http://www.hungryminds.com/

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You heard it here first. 3/8/2000. Learning Process Reengineering.

I'm exploring the conceptualization of eLearning as the disassembly and reaggregation that make up business process reengineering.

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web logs, essentially personal, descriptive link lists, are gaining corporate recognition. it's about time. in ways, The eLearning Page is a web log (although I don't use it so much a chronological diary as an evolving cheat-sheet.

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The Society for Organizational Learning

Our purpose is to discover, integrate, and implement theories and practices for the interdependent development of people and their institutions.

Guiding Principles

In pursuit of this Purpose the members of SoL believe that,

Drive to Learn - All human beings are born with an innate, lifelong desire and ability to learn, which should be enhanced by all organizations.

Learning is Social - People learn best from and with one another, and participation in learning communities is vital to their effectiveness, well-being and happiness in any work setting.

Learning Communities - The capacities and accomplishments of organizations are inseparable from, and dependent on, the capacities of the learning communities which they foster.

Aligning with Nature - It is essential that organizations evolve to be in greater harmony with human nature and with the natural world.

Core Learning Capabilities - Organizations must develop individual and collective capabilities to understand complex, interdependent issues; engage in reflective, generative conversation; and nurture personal and shared aspirations.

Cross-Organizational Collaboration - Learning communities that connect multiple organizations can significantly enhance the capacity for profound individual and organizational change.

Therefore, SoL and its members intend and will use their best efforts to,

Subsidiarity - Make no decision and perform no function at a higher or more central level than can be accomplished at a more local level.

Inclusiveness - Conduct all deliberations and make all decisions by bodies and methods which reasonably represent all relevant and affected parties.

Shared Responsibility - Advance the Purpose in accordance with these Principles in ways which enhance the capacity of the community as a whole, as well as that of each member.

Openness - Transcend institutional and intellectual boundaries and roles that limit or diminish learning.

Adaptive Governance - Continually conceive, implement, and practice governance concepts and processes which encourage adaptability, diversity, flexibility, and innovation.

Intellectual Output - Use research generated by the community in ways that most benefit society.

Acknowledgment - Openly and fairly acknowledge intellectual contributions to Concepts, Theories, and Practices, both from within and from outside the community.

Participation & Quality - Contribute to and/or participate in research, capacity building, and practice, striving for the highest standards of quality.

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Fred Nichols has written a series of clear-headed articles on training, design, measurement, consulting, and related subjects.

Training is a management tool, not the private domain of those who specialize in its development or delivery, nor of those who make its development and delivery contingent upon some other methodology." By "some other methodology," I mean performance technology, which seems to me to view training as little more than an occasionally useful remedy for skill or knowledge deficiencies.

training serves many masters and many purposes.

• Focusing energy on issues.
  
• Making work and issues visible.
  
• Supporting other interventions.
  
• Legitimizing issues.
  
• Promoting change.
  
• Reducing risk.
  
• Creating a community based on some shared experience.
  
• Building teams.
  
• Indoctrinating new staff.
  
• Communicating and disseminating knowledge and information.
  
• Certifying and licensing.
  
• Rewarding past performance.
  
• Flagging "fast trackers."
  
• Developing skills.
  

The concluding point to be made here is very, very simple and very, very important: There is no "cookbook" approach to the evaluation of training. To properly evaluate training requires one to think through the purposes of the training, the purposes of the evaluation, the audiences for the results of the evaluation, the points or spans of points at which measurements will be taken, the time perspective to be employed, and the overall framework to be utilized.

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"Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon."
-E. M. Forster

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Andragogy versus Pedagogy. Knowles's theories
of adult learning include these observations: Adults need to know why they're
learning something; they must believe it will have a personal benefit. Adults
have lifetime experiences that should be tapped and built upon. Adults learn best
from hands-on, problem-solving approaches to learning. Adults will expect to apply
new knowledge and skills immediately, which will aid retention.

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Forget ROI: Measure "Return on Expectations"
In traditional ROI analysis, we want to know if we are getting our money’s worth
a nearly impossible question if you start thinking about the complexity of most
organizations and the host of other factors that can affect returns. For example,
did this Intranet training make a difference? Does our corporate website improve
our bottom line? You can try to play this game with numbers and rough estimates,
but in most cases, it’s doubtful that those numbers are meaningful.

 

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Is e-Learning as effective as instructor-led,
classroom learning?

The cards aren't in yet. Hundreds
of studies find that there's no significant different between in-person
and distance classes. A few
have found distance learning superior. Delving a little further, you find that
no one has researched eLearning as we define it here, i.e. personalized, integrated,
and social.

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"The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten
years and they never took delivery." — Veteran of a firm now free-falling
out of the Fortune 500 "

...companies so lobotomized that they can't speak in
a recognizably human voice build sites that smell like death." —"Fear
and Loathing on the Web" The Industry Standard and CNN Interactive

Get on the clue train

Petzinger, Wall Street Journal columnist, in the intro to The
Clue Manifesto



On this particular day, one of my correspondents urged me to check out a new
site at www.cluetrain.com ...which says
that...business, at bottom, is fundamentally human.
That engineering remains second-rate without aesthetics. That natural, human
conversation is the true language of commerce. That corporations work best when
the people on the inside have the fullest contact possible with the people on
the outside.



And most importantly, that however ancient, timeless, and true, these principles
are just now resurging across the business world. The triggering event, of course,
is the advent of a global communication system that restores the banter of the
bazaar, that tears down power structures and senseless bureaucracies, that puts
everyone in touch with everyone.



David Weinberger

"We don't know what the Web is for but we've adopted it faster than any
technology since fire."





Imagine a world where everyone was constantly learning, a world where what you
wondered was more interesting than what you knew, and curiosity counted for
more than certain knowledge. Imagine a world where what you gave away was more
valuable than what you held back, where joy was not a dirty word, where play
was not forbidden after your eleventh birthday. Imagine a world in which the
business of business was to imagine worlds people might actually want to live
in someday. Imagine a world created by the people, for the people not perishing
from the earth forever.



Yeah. Imagine that.





The Cluetrain Hit-One-Outta-the-Park Twelve-Step Program
for Internet Business Success



Relax

Have a sense of humor

Find your voice and use it

Tell the truth

Don't panic

Enjoy yourself

Be brave

Be curious

Play more

Dream always

Listen up

Rap on

Chapter One of The
Cluetrain Manifesto

Apocalypso

Look, we'd love to derive twelve happy instructions from the wash of ideas
swirling around us. Really. We could market those puppies like Tang in a sauna.
Seminars, workbooks, T-shirts, coffee mugs…



But it doesn't work that way. This is an existential moment. It's characterized
by uncertainty, the dissolving of the normal ways of settling uncertainties,
the evaporation of the memory of what certainty was once like. In times like
this, we all have an impulse to find something stable and cling to it, but then
we'd miss the moment entirely. There isn't a list of things you can do to work
the whirlwind. The desire to have such a list betrays the moment.



How do you speak in a human voice? First, you get a life. And corporations just
can't do that. Corporations are like Pinocchio. Or Frankenstein. Their noses
grow longer at the oddest moments, or they start breaking things for no good
reason. They want to be human, but gosh, they're not. They want the Formula
for Life — but they want it so they can institutionalize it. The problem, of
course, is that life is anti-formulaic, anti-institutional. The most fundamental
quality of life is something the corporation can never capture, never possess.
Life can't be shrink-wrapped, caged, dissected, analyzed, or owned. Life is
free.

And finally...the ultimate compliment, a parody called The
Gluetrain Manifesto

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What's
important for e-commerce in 2000?

The Standard

If 1999 was the year of the dot-com, 2000 will be the year
of the dot- community. Grassroots sites based on shared values and common
interests will steal market share from the big portals. - Andrew Shapiro, author
of The Control Revolution, director of the Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project
and a senior adviser to the Markle Foundation

Dot-coms and e-businesses will be valued on the number of repeat
customers, the lifetime value of those customers and the retention rate
of those customers. Internet advertising revenues will be based on customer
acquisition bounties and transaction fees, not eyeballs or click-throughs. -
Patricia Seybold, CEO of the Patricia Seybold Group and author of Customers.com

An integrated customer experience: Browse and
comparison-shop online, buy in the physical store; browse and purchase online,
return mistakes at the physical store; browse the physical store, including
the Web from the store, then buy it online at the store kiosk and pick it up
at the store. All the various combinations of the above. - Donna Hoffman

The four "p"s of marketing are dead. Rather than products, customers value
experiences. Rather than place, they will create relationships in the marketspace
or the clicks-and-bricks interface – the "marketface." Prices can no longer
be defined by sellers with the new price-discovery mechanisms. And promotion
is being replaced by the forging of interactive relationships. - Don Tapscott

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The Learner Experience

from a New York Times article in January 2000 about Apple's iTools.

What Microsoft may be preparing to do, and what Apple has already started
to do with its iTools, is to create a technical country club in cyberspace where
the food is superior, the golf courses are more manicured, the pool is Bondi
blue, the best coaches work there, the parties are cooler, and there are no
old junkers in the partking lot.

1. Using hardware as the ticket of admission.

2. Marketing exclusivity, the experience

 

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Michael Shrage in Fortune

Hate the Web Master? He, Too, Can Be Replaced

The goal is to make the enterprise less safe for techies who earn as much as
executives a decade their senior. Internecine corporate warfare is never pretty,
but it can be fun to watch. So expect increasing clamor for H1B visas to ensure
the steady flow of youngish, technically trainable, and cheap developers from
overseas. Fluency in English ultimately matters less than fluency in Java, right?

At least that's what management fervently hopes. As the Internet globalizes
at ever higher bandwidths, expect that nifty corporate wwwebfrastructure to
be crafted in either Bangalore or Budapest. Like Nike's Air Jordan's, the designs
will be done in the U.S., but the digital scutwork will be performed by binary
braceros overseas.

The most provocative tomorrows will come when entrepreneurs pour their ingenuity
into figuring out how to automate Web mastery for the managerial masses. If
data mining, customer-relationship management, and tech support software can
be made as easy to use--and as reliable--as a spreadsheet, then just how many
in-house gurus would a corporation need? Using cheaper Web technologies to eliminate
expensive Web technologists is precisely the delicious irony that much of the
baby boom's managerial generation hopes to savor before retirement.

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from Distance Education at a Glance

Research comparing distance education to traditional face-to-face instruction
indicates that teaching and studying at a distance can be as effective as traditional
instruction, when the method and technologies used are appropriate to the instructional
tasks, there is student-to-student interaction, and when there is timely teacher-to-
student feedback (see Moore & Thompson, 1990; Verduin & Clark, 1991). Reference
And how does a faculty member
become effective?

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"Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences
our lives does not consist of what actually happened, but of what men believe
happened." -Gerald White Johnson

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Teaching as a Subversive Activity

Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner

Administrators are another curious consequence of a bureaucracy which has forgotten
its reason for being. In schools, administrators commonly become myopic as a
result of confronting all of the problems the `requirements' generate. Thus,
they cannot see (or hear) the constituents of the system which ostensibly exists
to serve the students. The idea that the school should consist of procedures
specifically intended to help learners learn strikes many administrators as
absurd and `impractical.' The nature of `administration' seems to insure this
conclusion. Eichmann, after all, was `just an administrator.' He was merely
`enforcing requirements.' The idea of `full-time administrators' is palpably
a bad one especially in schools and we say to hell with it. Most of the `administration'
of the school should be a student responsibility. If schools functioned according
to the democratic ideas they pay verbal allegiance to, the students would long
since have played a major role in developing policies and procedures guiding
its operation. One of the insidious facts about totalitarianism is its seeming
`efficiency.' Responsibility needs to be delegated, and with it the authority
to carry it out, BUT in order for a democratic system to work however imperfectly
the responsible authority must be accountable to its constituents. In schools
this means the students. Democracy with all of its `inefficiency' is still the
best system we have so far for enhancing the prospects of our mutual survival.
The schools must begin to act as if this were so."

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Log on for Company Training

Business Week, January 10, 2000

..."Throughout Corporate America, as at GM, old-style courses taught in
classrooms are rapidly giving way to e-learning delivered over the Internet
or by satellite. International Data Corp. figures the corporate e-learning market
in 1998 was just $550 million. By 2002, IDC predicts, e-learning will explode
to $7.1 billion."

"Even the U.S. Army is jumping on the bandwagon. It recently began offering
all 479,000 enlisted personnel, plus thousands of additional civilian employees,
more than 1,000 different courses in information technology provided over the
Internet by SmartForce (SMTF)."

"But e-learning isn't limited to tech courses. Shoney's Restaurants has
begun training new waiters, cooks, and other employees using a novel satellite-delivered
computer program--developed by a unit of Provant (POVT)--that teaches recruits
such basics as how to clock in for work and how to take an order."

"Classroom-based courses are not going away for many manufacturers. At
some point, says GM's Pasquier, ''you still need to touch the vehicle'' to teach
employees about servicing a new car. Still, GM expects eventually to deliver
half its dealership training via IDL. E-learning is changing corporate training
forever."

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Keith Devlin: The
Death of the Paragraph

from Feed,
January 17, 2000

We may be moving toward a generation that is cognitively unable to acquire
information efficiently by reading a paragraph. They can read words and sentences
-- such as the bits of text you find on a graphical display on a web page --
but they are not equipped to assimilate structured information that requires
a paragraph to get across.

To give just one example, a recent study of 10,000 community college students
in California found that, in the 18-25-year age group, just 17% of the men could
acquire information efficiently through reading text. For the remaining 83%,
the standard college textbook is little more than dead weight to carry around
in their bag! The figure for women in the same age group is a bit higher: just
under 35% can learn well from textually presented information. These figures
contrast with those for students aged 35 or over: 27% of males and over 42%
of females find it natural to learn from reading. Of course, that's still less
than half the student population, so any ideas we might fondly harbor of a highly
literate older generation are erroneous. But if the difference between the figures
for the two generations indicates the start of a steady decline in the ability
to read text of paragraph length, then a great deal of our scientific and cultural
heritage is likely to become highly marginalized.

Half a century after the dawn of the television age, and a decade into the
internet, it's perhaps not surprising that the medium for acquiring information
that both age groups find most natural is visual nonverbal: pictures, video,
illustrations, and diagrams. According to the same college survey, among the
18-25-year age group, 48% of males and 36% of females favor this method of acquiring
information. The figures for the over-35s are almost identical: 46% and 39%.
If these figures reflect the start of a story that has not been reported, then
by the time somebody does write it, there may not be many people around able
to read it. The social, cultural, scientific, and political consequences of
that are likely to be major.

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Students' Frustrations with a Web-Based Distance
Education Course

by Noriko Hara and Rob Kling

First Monday,
volume 4, number 12 (December 1999)

"This case study examines students' difficulties in learning effectively
in a Web-based distance education course" at a major university. The six
grad students in the course (ironically, a course on computer-mediated instruction)
were bummed out by technical glitches, confusing instructions, and misunderstandings
and poor response time from their instructor. The course web site was confusing
and had dead links, this was the instructor's first go at distance learning,
some students didn't know HTML (an unmentioned prerequisite) and others couldn't
use search engines on the net.

Some students were edgy because they couldn't see their instructor. "The
instructor has been good about responding immediately when you ask something.
However, I have been in school in my life and I didn't realize how much I relied
on my knowledge of what teachers are looking for, sort of, you know. You sit
in a classroom with somebody and you analyze who they are and what they like
and you cannot analyze because you've never seen them. So, you are only guessing
it what teacher really wants."

Most researchers focus on the upside of distance learning, conveniently ignoring
negative consequences. Technological utopians, fueled by a popular press that
favors "the excitement of extremism over the calm of rationality,"
describe "distance education via technology as a potential silver bullet" for
academia.

Article has extensive and informative references.

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Higher
Education in an Era of Digital Competition: Emerging Organizational Models

Donald E. Hanna, Ph.D.

Hanna analyzes

• Extended traditional universities


• For-profit adult-centered universities


• Distance education/technology-based universities


• Corporate universities


• University/industry strategic alliances


• Degree/certification competency-based universities


• Global multinational universities

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ONLINE LEARNING NEWS A news and idea service of Bill
Communications Inc. (Lakewood) Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2000 Vol. 2, No. 43

HOW TRAINERS GET ONLINE LEARNING WRONG Ready for a good rant? Patti
Shank (patti@insighted.com) has gone critical -- she's heard too many, er, misguided
reactions to online learning from other trainers. Shank, an Aurora, CO, Web-based
training developer and regular contributor to Technology for Learning Newsletter,
says the top four professional misunderstandings about online learning are:

"It's not as good as in-person training." "That's like saying a fork isn't
as good as a spoon," Patti snarls. "Online learning isn't inherently worse or
better than in-person training. It depends on a zillion other factors. You still
need to know the situation and the available resources to make good choices."

"Look! Instant online learning!" "Just because it's on a Web page somewhere,"
Patti sighs, "doesn't make it training." Your human-resources department posts
benefits information each year. Is that training?

"You need to be a techie to do this." "What's needed," Patti begs to differ,
"is the chutzpa to shape technology for your organization's needs, and the desire
to work as a team with the folks who know how the bytes buzz. Needs analysis
and instructional design are still the most critical aspects of online learning.
Technology is just a medium, not the master." Communication, mentoring, collaboration
are processes that work well via the Internet, she says. "Flash, Shockwave,
and streaming video are nifty -- in some cases," Patti adds, "but not always
necessary."

"Online learning will cost trainers their jobs." "What costs trainers their
jobs," Patti growls, "is being clueless. Maybe technology changes our jobs a
bit. But aren't we the same folks preaching how the people in our organizations
need to adapt to the rapidly changing realities of business?"

posted by jay cross at 8/5/2000