OnLine Learning 2000
Denver, September 25-27, 2000

Internet Time Group went to OnLine Learning. So did 8,000 others, about half of them paying a full registration fee. Here's our irreverent commentary on the event. The photos (downloading as you read this) are in the Expo section.

Gloria Gery has become the personality of the OnLine Learning shows; she's Bill Communications' answer to Elliott Masie. Her keynote, How do we get there from here?, called on the eLearning industry to push ahead, break through the classrooom paradigm, make knowledge management meaningful, and decrease time-to-performance. Nothing new in this, but concisely stated. Gloria is a cogent, humorous, energetic interpreter of what's going on.

What if people drop out of eLearning experiences? "My response to that is, 'Hallelujah!' " said Gloria. "We have the wrong metrics. We don't have to make sure everyone goes through everything."

Expo Quiz: Spot the Imposter!

Pick the one company in each paragraph did not have an exhibit in the Expo. Answers are at the bottom of the page.

1. Brainbench, Cognitive Arts, Element K, eMeta, eMind, ePath, gForce, GurukulOnline, iKnow, ibizu, Isopia, Maaya, Mentergy, mGen, MindIQ, and Peer3?
   
   
2. Knowledge College, Knowledge Quest, Knowledge Mechanics, Knowledge Impact, Knowledge Analysis Technologies, Knowledge Alliance, Knowledge Max, KnowledgeLinx, KnowledgeNet, KnowledgePlanet, KnowledgeXtensions, and Knowwware Knowledge?
   
   
3. Learn University, Learn2.com, Learnability, Learnframe, Learning Insights, The Learning Library, The Learning Manager, Learning Pays.com. Learning-Edge, LearningAction, LearningByte, LearningMate, LearningStream, LearningWare, LearningWell, Learnit, Learnsoft, LearnStream.
   
   
4. MindBenders, MindIQ, MindLeaders, MindLever, MindRise.

Roger Schank presented an inspired diatribe against education. Schools have failed to provide the education needed for today's world. Nobody learns in the classroom. Experts don't teach. Social skills are rarely taught. Practical skills are disdained. Today's high-school curriculum was set in 1892 (to meet Harvard's prerequisites), when the primary purpose of college was preparing future professors. Schools are in a rut created 3,000 years ago, when groups would gather to listen to a literate community member read from the Torah.

<video>Father Guido Sarducci describes the "Five-minute University," where you learn everything a person remembers from four years of college in only five minutes. He going to open a law school. "Got a minute?"</video> People learn by doing. Telling doesn't teach (Dewey, 1915).

The online learner must have freedom to fail (to meet her expectations). What does it take to learn? Failure, reasoning why, emotional impact, exploration, doing, observation (creating mental images), and motivation.

A course in Developmental Pscyh that Cognitive Arts ("because gray matters") developed for Columbia was awsome. You are cast in the role of counselor, asked to deal with a little boy who beats up on his classmates. You can observe him, research the literature, and listen to national experts. (In the real world, you rarely get to hear faculty who are truly expert in their fields.) You shape up your position on the belligerent boy; you conclude that he's a bully. You meet with his mother. She rips your face off. Your boss suggests you continue your research. Motivating. Real. Fun. Undoubtedly costs a fortune to make lessons like this but it beats the hell out of lectures and textbooks.

Howard Block (Bank of America Securities) gave us a peak at a matrix he's developing to describe the eLearning landscape:

Howard's one of the most astute observers in the business, but nonetheless I'd be cautious using this sort of tool to make investment decisions. (Although that's why investors need Howard's help. Don't do this at home, kids.)

What's missing? The alliances and interoperability with other players on and off the matrix, e.g. the Big Five, Ariba, Broadvision. Viablility -- some of the companies in attractive squares are undifferentiated, under-capitalized, and/or undiversified; they are toast. Elegance of design. Quality, which Howard sees coming on strong in the future.

James Burke, of Connections fame, gave an erudite and, for me, often incomprehensible presentation on knowledge and learning. Knowledge is simply society's agreed-upon way of encoding reality; language is its transmitter; that's an English joke. The minority who have decoder rings seize power because they understand the mystery knowledge and know how to make stone axes. And to anticipate change. Universities were organized for the sole purpose of decoding ancient wisdom, but Descartes led us down a reductionist path to a point where experts know more and more about less and less, and everyone can be an expert although perhaps in a meaningless field. Institutions are like formadehyde, preserving things with no change. You can use The Brain to chart the connections between the Great Library of Alexandria and XML. Or you can listen to a similar talk by Burke on the Web but don't let yourself get institutionalized with this stuff.

Believe it or not, I am a fan of James Burke. Connections was a wonderful show. His columns in Scientific American give me insight and chuckles. His book The Axeman's Gift was a brilliant collaboration with my favorite pscyhology writer, Robert Ornstein. But to follow Burke's esoteric connections I need visuals, as on the PBS show, or the ability to go at my own speed, as afforded by the written word. A better AV system and more sleep would have helped, too. Note from a friend: "In the UK, James Burke is a joke."

Expo!

Since last year's OnLine Learning in L.A., vendors have invested massive amounts in eLearning. Sadly, the money apparently went primarily for name-changes, signage, and corporate makeovers. Flash, not substance -- sort of like this chair on exhibit in the design collection of the Denver Museum of Art. A few vendors had great things on display -- but it was hard to cull them out from the sheer clutter of the wannabes.

The Expo aisles were filled with people who had been sent to the show to figure out what their organizations should be doing in eLearning. Tough assignment. I couldn't find anything that wasn't labeled eLearning. Most vendors said they were selling solutions, but when you scratched the surface, you found only pieces of solutions. Or potential solutions. Or vapor solutions.

Working in Silicon Valley has left me jaded. I need to hear a coherent story that goes deeper than brochure-speak. I know but if , tell me how to turn the , don't give me structure without content or try to scare me .

Expo Album
camera info

This could be a winner. Instead of buying cassettes, you buy access to streaming media of all sessions for six months. The first two weeks are free.	Neat flatpanel display with rotating images.	Great way to get leads, eh?
Okay.	Coolest giveaway: personalized T-shirts from Centra.	I was on the phone to the office while my T-shirt was being made.
Bob Jones University?	Happy to help you maximize those business goals.	Expo too confusing? Try "finding, reviewing, comparing and buying training online."
	Departmental eLearning, for those who can't afford enterprise eLearning.	Soft drink?
No, I don't look down on you at all.	Lunch at Denver's oldest restaurant, the Buckhorn Exchange. Rocky Mountain Oysters. Fat Tire Ale. Elk. Yum.	Roos.
Service? The bookstore was having a tough time literally giving away copies of The Service Edge by Ron Zemke and Dick Schaaf.	Gotta get my doctorate. No, hold it. I already have two ThinkPads, and neither of them works.	You can even raise your hand, said IBM.
Elliott Masie visited OnLine Learning online. "Hi, Jay," said the great talking head.	Note photographer in the PIP at the arrow.
"Create your own eLearning." Sure.	Why would you pick this name? Or this one...	Nancy wins LearnFrame's Lazer scooter. Damn! I wanted it.
Jones' magician. Best entertainment on the floor.	E&Y by another name.	I thought they were Duke's programs. Or Harvard's. Or someone else's.
Indeed.	One of the best.	MaryAlice demos wireless InterWise.
Tiger Woods makes a surprise appearance for Docent.
	Yes, I'm biased in favor of SmartForce. They have the best one-stop eLearning I've seen. Learning management, web-delivered content, dynamic updating, personalization, yadda, yadda, yadda, all tied togehter. (Full Disclosure: SmartForce is a client of Internet Time Group.)   Who else takes learning all the way from the desktop to Little Richard? Good golly, Miss Molly.
I'll close with two more chairs from the Denver Museum of Art. eLearning has the power to change the world, but only if we build upon the foundations of the past. Our field has too little sense of history.	Corinthian chair
To prosper, eLearning needs less fluff and more substance less clutter and cleaner design less bullshit and more beauty.	Flower chair
Jay's notes from OnLine Learning 98	Jay's notes from Online Learning 99

Quiz answers: iKnow, Knowledge College, LearningWell and MindBenders are fakes. Return to quiz .

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jaycross@InternetTime.com