Week Three; Online Technologies Today and Tomorrow

[Anil]

Hi friends,

Online Technologies Today and Tomorrow - I think a lot is there to
discuss. We can see many online technology solutions for our Learning/
Course Management Systems - open and free, open and priced, closed but
free, closed and priced - all kinds are there. Apart from popular
solutions like moodle, blackboard, joomla1 etc, there are many
institutional solutions as well. I mean, elearning solutions developed
by individual institutions for their use. Some institutions share such
solutions with others who need the same. Therefore access to the
technology is not a problem for the time being. Whereas the absence of
widely accepted techniques and policies to offer credential services
using the elearning solutions is a major problem.

With respect to the future technologies, I dream technologies that can
facilitate online playing of audio/video without streaming delays
even in very low bandwidth conditions, cheaper wireless mobile
technologies to bring all remote locations under the connectivity
umbrella - I would call inclusive connectivity.

We would also require more intelligent systems that can facilitate
simulation for lab experiments,etc. Your thoughts?

Warm regards

Anil
http://www.apletters.blogspot.com
http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Anil_Prasad

[Anil]

Hi friends,

While we think aloud about LMS/CMS solutions, there are many simpler
and cost effective ways. For example the free open source print & e-
book titled ‘Learning Perspectives 2010’ published by the MASIE Centre
and the Learning Consortium contains an article by Julie Clow of
Google, which gives a picturesque narration of innovative staff
Training and Development methods that are being implemented by Google.
The learning teams at google have come to the conclusion that
conventionally printed guides and other learning materials do not
provide a significantly better learning experience. They have tested
this hypothesis in creating a leadership programme for early-career
Googlers. They did not have time, budget or resources to create a
highly polished programme. They wanted to train a few thousand
Googlers spread across the globe quickly. They have decided to tap
into the freely available leadership resources on the web. For this
purpose they have drafted a series of simple emails that contained
some basic context of the leadership themes along with links to the
free content as noted above. Each email required only a few minute’s
learning activity such as read an article, watch a video or answer a
few questions.

In the above learning initiative of four week duration, they have kept
their participants on track by holding virtual synchronous brief
sessions at the end of each week, which also built a sense of
community. The programme received high feedback scores. Participation
and completion scores fell in the 80% - 90% range; which was far
higher than the typical eLearning completion rates. The demand for
the programme is very strong now.

Learning Perspectives 2010 is available at http://www.learning2010.com/ebook