10 Learning Technologies to Transform Training in 2008

Gary Woodill said in January these would be the 10 Learning Technologies to Transform Training in 2008.

1. Technologies of collaboration - wikis and teamspace software will grow in use in non-academic organizations, and the field of ”computer supported collaborative learning” (CSCL), now mostly found in schools and universities, will develop outside of academic settings, including corporate training.

2. Learning Games for Business - This field is old news to die-hard gamers, but just being discovered by most people in corporate training. Most of the participants in our workshops and conference in September tried a training game for the first time. Games are being used both for training and for recruitment of a new generation of employees.

3. Distributed Computing Technologies - I introduce “mashups” and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to workshop participants because this is a fundamental shift in how we view “websites”. Instead of sites, we need to think of a group of agents harvesting and gathering content and applications from many locations, and delivering it as a dynamic personal mix based on a user’s profile and needs.

4. Embedded Learning Technologies - computing power is already almost everywhere, from toilet seats to cell phones. I show the “hug shirt” (it vibrates and squeezes you in response to a friend’s phone message) as an example of the convergence of affective computing, wearable computing, mobile computing, haptics and teledildonics. One person at last year’s ASTD conference asked me if a “kick in the ass pants” was being developed. Hmm…

5. Multisensory input devices - Computing is mostly a visual and auditory experience. The use of touch (”haptics”) is rapidly becoming more common, led by the interace for Apple’s iPhone and Microsoft Surface technology. Watch for levers, gloves and places to put your finger in new training applications this year. While haptics will lead the way, technologies for the senses of taste and smell are not that far behind.

6. Rollout Flexible Screens for Mobile Devices - the ability to reach employees with information as they need it through mobile devices is very attractive to many training departments, but is held back by the small screens and keyboards. The introduction of flexible rollout screens (”digital paper”), with touch capabilities (”digital ink”), gesture recognition, and speech recognition for mobile devices may break that logjam. I know that this has been forecast for the past ten years, but now that it is in the Economist, it must really be happening.

7. Social Bookmarking and Automatic Synthesis of Tags - As people add tags to just about everything, a new set of technologies that gathers related tags and makes something out of them will construct some amazing synthetic worlds. Already the millions of photographs on Flickr.com are being used to develop 3D models of buildings and landscapes, through such applications as Photosynth.

8. Personalization Technologies - software for automatically constructing personal profiles beased on e-mail, web use trails, and user input is now available and is being used in recommender systems (e.g., Amazon), dynamic museum exhibits and information systems that change for each user, and adaptive tutoring systems. Watch for training to become more personalized.

9. Visualization of Complexity - computer data systems can continuously compile huge amounts of information. The problem is what to do with it. Because of our strong visual processing abilities, transforming large and complex data sets into pictures may be the best way for us to grasp its meaning. See www.visualcomplexity.com for lots of examples.

10. Location-based Augmented Reality - the Global Positioning System (GPS) will track where you are through cell phones and other GPS devices, while vast amounts of data stored in Geographic Information Systems and applications such as Google Earth will drive augmented reality applications to add to your experience of any location on the globe. This information will be superimposed on the world as you move through it.

Read Gary's post here.

Why do we have to endure uncomfortable workplaces?

Tom Davenport, who writes for the Harvard Business Publishing blog says:

Here's a next big thing: companies will need to redesign their workplaces to better fit the needs of knowledge workers. The idea that we should spend our workdays in boring cubicles -- either in big downtown buildings or suburban office parks -- is increasingly out of kilter with the way people actually work and how they want to spend their lives. It doesn’t take into account our needs and abilities involving mobility, social networking, stimulation, and fun. I’ll bet that the best knowledge workers will be seeking out companies with workplaces that offer more to them. Read more ...

Tom's article hit a spot. I have been thinking for a while now: Why do we have to endure uncomfortable workplaces? Being a consultant, this is an especially hard matter. Clients always relegate consultants to the ugliest and most uncomfortable places to work. I guess because consultants get paid to do the job no matter what.

Well, as it turns out, I am much more productive when I feel comfortable in my workspace.

What I mean is I like to have my own desk, where I can leave my papers and find them in the same place the next day. I like to have a chair that I can adjust and find a comfortable position. I like to have a phone to make and receive calls without being at the mercy of cell phones' bad reception or dropped calls, and I like to have a printer within walking distance.

More often than not, companies don't give these issues a second thought and even worse, consultants are seen as "more professional" if they can make do with anything, like sitting on the wrong side of a desk with the knees constantly hitting the back of it or sharing a closet-size office with 5 other persons and no privacy of any kind.

I am not even talking about a "fun" or "pretty" workspace here. A comfortable one at this point will be a big step.

Organizational Change Management (OCM)

"The art of dealing with people that is going through a transformation process" - Me