New Paths in Elearning George Siemens

Why are you using elearning?

Uses for elearning Strategic advantage Reduce costs Rapid learning/development Increase capacity for performance

Trends Mobile Decentralization Global New Learning Context –Informal –Continual –Embedded in workplace –Rapid

Impact of Trends Learning=life line in complex, knowledge environments Interconnected nature of organization and individual –Systems thinking –Chaos theory –Complexity theory

Where are you succeeding in elearning? Design

Where are you succeeding in elearning? Technology

Where are you succeeding in elearning? Delivery

Where are you succeeding in elearning? Learner involvement

Whats wrong? Current elearning approach is not sustainable –Cost of content creation –Content obsolescence –Mismatch – learning environment and real-life learning –Too much information – cant process under existing models

Whats wrong? Learning: chaotic, nebulous, aggregation, pattern recognition, distributed cognition, social continual suspended certainty, JIT Our current learning tools: LMS, LCMS: structured, hierarchical, rigid, in advance of need

Centralized vs. Decentralized Complexity requires decentralization

Whats happening? Which tools are you currently using for learning?

Lets Build an Airplane… Knowledge is distributed Complexity requires aggregation Aggregation provides whole picture

A new path… Networks Connected specialization Adaptive learning models Diversity of approaches Simple, social tools –Learning and KM

The role of content Is content still king?

Connectivism Learning as network-creation Meaning as pattern recognition Tools aligned to inherent nature of task

Lets get practical Tools: – –Blended –F2F –Social technologies –Distributed – Communities – Mobile – SOSS – CMS – Networks Connections to content Connections to people

How can we implement tools and approaches that work?

George Siemens