Why Workplace Learning Is Largely Learning 1.0

Michele Martin has been writing a string of posts about why workplace learning is largely using authoring and presenting tools – more like “Learning 1.0” types of approaches, while the educators are using more Web 2.0 tools like Wikis, blogs etc. She refers to Jane Hart’s Spring 2008 Top 100 Tools for Learning, a compilation of the top 10 tools identified by 155 elearning professionals, a list to which I also contributed. Jane and Michele make interesting observation about the differences between learning in corporate world and an educator’s world.In…

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What would I like to do better as a Learning Professional?

In response to the Learning Circuit's April Big Question, What would you like to do better as a Learning Professional, here's my list.As a learning professional, I would like to see myself making a greater connect between learning and business needs, and between training and on the job productivity.In my new role, I would like to build a better learning product that will really prepare fresh graduate for the IT industry and enable them to get a job. This will include not just technical skills, but communication skills and life…

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Tips for Running a Team Blog

Cross posted on Michele Martin's The Bamboo Project blog.Michele asked if I was willing to share some tips for keeping my team engaged or things I am learning from starting up a team blog. She thought these would be helpful for people to get a feel of what things are like in the trenches. I have been sharing some of the progress in my own blog, but I felt this will be a good opportunity to consolidate learning from my experience.To start with, let me share that it isn’t easy.…

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How to be a Popular Project Manager

Art Petty writes an interesting post about project managers not being liked by anyone. I quite agree with him. I believe that project manager's lack of popularity is their occupational hazard. Project managers have a tough job on their hands. They have the responsibility without always having full authority, whether it is the SME, or other members of the virtual team who report to their functional mangers. At the end of the day if the project fails, overruns or is delayed, it is the project manager who has to take…

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Building a Performance Bank Account

A recent situation in workplace made me think about the importance of building a performance bank account on lines of emotional bank account. Or perhaps performance bank account is a subset of emotional bank account.When you join a new organization, the organization’s evaluation of your skills is based on the few interactions had during the interview. In spite of the psychological tests, aptitude tests, and two or three rounds of interview that one goes through, it is at best a judgement to hire you based on limited interactions. Some organizations…

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Innovation and Execution

Clark Quinn makes a great point about the fact that innovation and execution are interlinked and organizations miss the point by focusing on these separately. In Clark’s words:I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about how to improve organizational performance. It’s part of thinking broader about how technology can be used to support performance, but then you have to have a picture of organizational learning as a whole. As I look at organizations, many are focused on excellence in execution, and quite a few have recognized that the competitive advantage…

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Tech Support Meme and Understanding your Audience

Tony Karrer’s blog had this very hilarious take on technology adoption. Karl Kapp follows it up with another one. And there are many more that provide the humorous side of tech support calls. Sometimes I wonder if the incidents narrated in most of these conversations are actually urban legends. Do such users actually exist who would ask there is the “Any key” on the keyboard? And what assumptions do we make of our users when we create a learning module? I wonder if there are any foundation courses that use…

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eCube – Progress So Far

We have made a modest beginning to the eCube experiment. In the first month, we have had 26 posts from 10 authors besides me. Additionally, there have been 24 comments posted. So the team is participating.As I mentioned in my previous post, eCube is an experiment in reflective learning using Web 2.0 tools. This is also an experiment to bring in a learning culture in the organization, and an attempt to solve the business need of enhancing skills of a large diverse and divergent team of instructional designers and content…

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Ratings by Outbrain

I discovered ratings by Outbrain and am loving it. Very simple to install on your blog, it puts an unobtrusive widget to allow readers to rate your posts. The software is still in beta stage so somethings aren't easy to find on your own. You need to write to them to get your ratings report on their site. And you need to add an extra bit of code in the widget to make the most popular posts visible on your site (add var OB_showMP = true; as first line after…

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Engaging, Interactive – Engaging First Amongst Equals

Clive Shepherd writes in defense of page turners and I agree. It is not that page turners as such are boring but the way content is written and presented makes it boring. And the same could well happen to content with high level of interactivity. To me content in any form needs to be engaging. Engaging content is more important than interactive content. I tell my team Harry Potter book is engaging, and it doesn’t have an iota of interactivity. In my personal learning environment, I read many blogs. None…

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