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My Dad grew up in a rural part of Kentucky in the late 30’s and early 40’s. The automobile certainly wasn’t ubiquitous during that period and many of my Dad’s encounters with cars involved some sort of trouble. If they were able to get the engine to start it usually didn’t take long before one of the tires was flat.

Fast forward to 1995 and my first exposure to the Internet. I feel like I’ll be regaling my own children someday about the trials and tribulations from the early days of the Information Superhighway. I’m preparing my stories now…

“Back in my day we used dial-up to connect only after a few minutes of the most unusual noises you can imagine. Then came wireless and we used to have to unlpug and restart our routers daily to keep connected…you kids don’t know how good you have it.”

It doesn’t have quite the same impact as walking to school in the snow with cardboard shoes uphill both ways but, hey, it’s what I know.

Due to our heavy travel schedules my wife and I work from home quite a bit.  Our internet service went out yesterday and this is just the latest in a long line of events that seem to want to keep us disconnected. I know that children being born today will not have these issues to contend with as we’re still in the infancy stage of the World Wide Web and things will only get more seamless.

When I check into a hotel or log onto a remote network there is always a slight sense of relief when I see my home page load.  This is a feeling that my yet-to-be-born children will likely never know.  Being connected to the Internet to them will worry them as much as starting my car worries me today - and that’s not much.

It’s exciting to be part of the beginning of the Internet revolution that has catapulted us into a knowledge society - using Web 2.0 technology I can now compile all of the stories needed to assure children and grandchildren that the Internet as they know it is a blessing for which they should rejoice…if only I can stay connected long enough to post this… 

In case you haven’t heard Apple is releasing the second version of its mega-popular iPhone tomorrow.  People have been lined up for days to get their hands on this device.

Beyond the slick exterior and sexy buttons of the phone, though, I think the main attraction to this engineering marvel is the ease and speed at which it allows users to find the information they need.

As we move further and further through our transition to a knowledge society it’s my belief that learning solutions will need to focus more on allowing people to find what they need quickly and less on providing content.  The iPhone looks like a device well positioned to do that for personal use and no doubt for corporate learning initiatives.

I’m purchasing one over the weekend or soon after to complement my growing Mac suite of devices that all incorporate this notion of quickly and easily being able to find what you need.  

I’ll let you know how iLike it…

Over the last few years the nationwide real estate market enjoyed tremendous growth followed by a bursting bubble to level-set prices.  I see the same trend a comin’ in the learning and development field…

Traditional formal training has been classically overvalued and is now up against many alternatives for the learning practitioner.  My prediction is that over time this will level-set the contributions of various forms of learning and development.  Formal training has been shown to provide about 25% of the information people need to do their jobs yet it is currently the most highly sought after tool for many training departments.

As the market becomes saturated with more and more options (i.e. communities of practice, action learning) for use in learning and development I feel that CLOs will begin to leverage a more diversified portfolio for their investment and that formal training’s role will be diminished.

Too much infrastructure and ego exist for the bubble to burst as quickly as it did in the real estate market but I’m confident it’s coming…

LMS For Sale: custom app, barely used, functions well but realized we need something better suited to our needs

This month’s Big Question from Learning Circuits blog asks us to ponder what we’d like to do better as learning professionals.

As I look at my ever-growing task list it seems there is an endless stream of possible angles with which to begin so I’ll take the high-level road…

What I’d like to do better is more effectively get the message out about the power and application of non-traditional forms of learning and development (i.e. communities of practice, action learning, social networks…). I feel that these services are under served in the market and that organizations can benefit greatly by integrating them within their portfolio of learning tools.

As with any message it has to be palatable. So as part of what I would like to do better, I want to make sure the message(s) are in a form that get attention - this includes videos, podcasts and literature. Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me for the foreseeable future…

We recently received the good news that the interactive graphic on our site - Orbital Paths - has been awarded an Addy through the Madison Advertising Federation.

We were honored to have worked with the fine folks at IQ Foundry to produce the graphic; one that we hope illustrates how we view learning and development in an organization.