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Issue # 052803

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This issue of Competence News contains:

• News Item and Comment - Has David Educated Goliath?
• Editorial - Can Barriers to Learning be Solved?
• Continuing Series - Where do I get subject matter expertise for courses?
• Word Gems - Free Interactive "Knowledge Objects" on Business Finance, Investing and the basics of Computer Technology
• Contact Us

e-learn.ing n. Learning that is assisted by using computer and information technology as a tool to help transfer knowledge.

ADL - Advanced Distributed Learning initiative.

Visit our sponsor CompetenceSoftware,Inc. Over 500,000 e-learning courses covering Business Finance, Investing and Computer technology have been delivered to individuals and corporations large and small. Our online training tutorials can train virtually anyone to be competent in these three areas:

• Understanding Computers - the basics of computer technology
• Financial Competence - the basics of business finance
• Investment Competence - the basics of investing

News Item - Has David Educated Goliath? David and Goliath - Training Magazine 28 May 2003.

"As organizations begin to leverage initial success, learning management is quickly becoming an important piece of a much larger enterprise wide computing pie."

See full article at:

http://www.trainingmag.com/training/index.jsp

Comment

The Goliaths of the information technology world are moving aggressively into e-learning as its value to the enterprise has been made clearly apparent by numerous Davids who have worked long and hard over the last decade to bring about this revolution.

True knowledge sets anyone free and true knowledge is, really, always free. Whether or not the Davids survive in their current corporate form or get gobbled up by the Goliaths, their contributions to knowledge and knowledge transfer are changing this civilization in the direction of more freedom.

Competence Software salutes and thanks all the pioneers who have proven the value of elearning and thus helped set the educational trend for the next century.

Editorial - Can Barriers to Learning be Solved?

Can technology solve all barriers to learning and knowledge transfer?

No.

Why not?

Technology is created by us not machines. Solve "us" (Homo Sapiens) and you solve technology.

The good news is that the major barriers to learning have been isolated, are simple to overcome and workable solutions to these barriers are available.

In a word - the solution is "the word".

In this age of "reusable learning objects", "knowledge chunks", etc. the direction learning is taking is towards smaller and smaller bits of knowledge that can be combined into learning experiences that deliver different learning outcomes.

Perhaps the lowest common denominator to communicating knowledge is the word. If one has full conceptual understanding of each word read or heard, then one can receive a communication and duplicate its meaning and therefore its knowledge content. Knowledge transfer ceases or is inhibited by no or partial understanding of words.

This is way too simple to be immediately accepted. But, like all major technical breakthroughs, the key to solving anything is simplicity not more complexity. Examples abound - The graphical user interface created a huge personal computer boom, the graphical World Wide Web has changed this civilization forever. That change is accelerating - despite the greed and excess of the financial manipulators of the late 90s.

People that thoroughly understand this simplicity, are creating a revolution in the field of education and learning and are the real future movers and shakers of the knowledge industry.. Their solutions are simple and highly effective. You can learn all about these solutions at:

http://www.appliedscholastics.org

Well worth your time to have a thorough look at this site.

The problem with learning from experts is that many are busy maintaining their “expert” status and are not about to help anyone get as smart as they believe themselves to be. Certainly the accountant, lawyers and designers of corporate finance statements are not “tearing the cover off the ball” when they get up to the knowledge transfer plate. The 80s and 90s were graduating MBA’s from the “very best” business schools by the truckload. However, we had the Internet boom and bust didn't we? The idea that a start up business should lose all the money it can and make it up in volume proved, once again, to be false. So what is the expert grade for academia?

The computer high tech area has proven to be the pace setter for at least attempting to communicate a subject so that it is understood. The advent of the graphical and intuitive user interface started at Xerox with “Small Talk”, evolved by Apple with the Macintosh and made ubiquitous (everywhere) by Microsoft Windows has demystified the world of computers. There are now a billion people using the internet thanks to simple browser interfaces. How many would there be if the internet had stayed in the domain of ivory towered academics and security conscious government agencies?

Chances are excellent that much of the expertise you need exists in your own organization – the problem being how to free up those that are too busy doing and producing to teach others. But this is one of the promises of well designed LMS/LCMS or Knowledge System. As we will see when we get to the article on distributing learning, these systems incorporate collaborative tools like white boards, synchronous video conferencing, threaded discussion groups, etc. All have value in helping to tap into the wealth of in house expertise that exists in any successful company. In order to succeed, your company had to do something right – right? So why not use your own successful actions to train others? High tech’s phenomenal expansion in the last few decades has led to a demand for increased skill level on a time frame that leaves any modern educational system in the dust. The above-mentioned tools are a fall out of the need for rapid knowledge transfer in the high tech area. Rapid and effective education in the high area has become a mission critical issue and is not left to a lagging educational system to handle.

Look to private enterprise for real subject matter expertise. The internet is overflowing with information and knowledge in almost any subject and white papers abound on knowledge-transfer-conscious web sites. Large consulting firms are moving into the learning management area aggressively as are publishers of textbooks containing wide varieties of subject matter expertise. The real trick is how to organize and present the knowledge so that it can be easily assimilated. That’s the subject of instructional methodology.

In the next article we will give you some simple guidelines on instructional methodology and an outstanding source of expertise on this vital subject

A good elearning glossary - http://www.e-learningguru.com/gloss.htm

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