« 108 - MP3 Gadget Demonstrates New Economy of Content; Industry Map from On-Line Learning Business Dialogue | Main | 110 - MyFamily.Com Creates Free Communities for Contact and Collaboration; Army Extends Computer Based Training Offerings to Force »
March 12, 1999
109 - Microsoft Invests in audible.com; learnativity.com a Jewel of Resources
1. Reader Comments on Verbalization Pour In: Perhaps it was the topic,
but we have never had as large a response to an item in TechLearn Trends
as my recent blurb on verbalization. I am fascinated about the role of
talking in learning...and what it may mean to technology delivered
learning. We have had over 90 responses and more seem to be popping into
my mailbox. Thought we would share a few with you and we will build a
larger summary next week and post it on the web.
>From Beth Sweetlandbaily, Aetna
Hi Elliott! I'm part of a small project team of educators providing
leadership and brand awareness training to our financial services
employees.
Re the need to verbalize in learning... I think that this IS a critical
component of learning, particularly for extraverted work team members. By
extraverted I mean those individual who receive essential
stimulation/energy from others. Their introverted counterparts may not
always require the same level of interaction.
Several of my team members and I are Myers Briggs Type Indicator Qualified
Professionals. We find the personality preference theories, and
application critical to our job as training consultants.
Another reason why verbalization is a key component to effective learning
is that it forces individuals to test assumptions they are making. That
never hurts!
>From Paul Brown, IBM Learning Services
There is no question that at least for me, verbalization is a key part of
the internalization process. Just ask any of my co-workers. Whenever we
are in a learning situation together (either formal or informal (e.g. a
meeting)), I am known for fairly extended monologues, and your message in
TechLearn Trends explains it. That is exactly what I am doing – verbally
sifting and sorting what I've just heard, putting it into context with
what I already know, rephrasing what I've heard to confirm correct
understanding.
I find it an extremely powerful tool, but hadn't realized until now why I
do it. It's interesting, because many people consider me very quiet. But
with some people, you can't shut me up. The reason is simply that with
those people, I feel comfortable with exploring ideas and advancing those
ideas by bouncing new thoughts off of others.
2 Microsoft Invests in audible.com - Convergence of Devices Ahead:
Yesterday, Microsoft announced a major investment in audible.com. We
wrote about audible in the last Trends, focusing on their service of
selling audio objects of lectures, news and other information. Microsoft
is working with Audible to create the capacity to play audio content on
the Windows CE portable devices. Watch for the convergence of the hand
held computer (PIM), cell phone and audio content player. What a boom
for on-the-go learning (OTG). :)
3. learnativity.com a Jewel of Resources. A great source of resources on
the changing world of learning is a web site maintained by Wayne Hodgins
and Marcia Conner. Wayne is the leading figure in the world of learning
standards and works at AutoDesk. Marcia has been the force behind the
Training FAQ List and works at PeopleSoft. Bookmark this site, I visit it
every day or two: http://www.learnativity.com
4. Learning Decisions to Explore Chargeback Issues: The issue of charging
back to business units for learning and training activities is a key
topic. Are chargebacks actually a tax that lowers the incentive for
accessing learning services? How do organizations differ in their
approaches to allocating learning costs to business units or projects.
These will be tackled head on at Learning Decisions '99, our new Executive
Retreat for Training Executives to be held in Las Vegas, May 12 to 14,
1999.
We are honored to have accepted over 125 learning officers and directors
from companies including: Lucent, NCR, Sherwin Williams, Lockheed,
McDonalds, Anheuser-Busch, Intel, American Century, Chase Manhattan,
Compaq, The Limited and many more). Space is limited to 285 and
attendance is by application only. Full details at
http://www.masie.com/decisions/
Posted by elliott at March 12, 1999 03:05 PM