My favorite conference in the world, Learning 2005, kicked off tonight here in Orlando, FL. I thought I would blog my notes every evening.

Masie traditionally holds his conferences here in Orlando late in the year every year. In the past, his TechLearn Conference was the conference I would attend, but he sold that in recent years and has kicked off a new series called, simply, “Learning.” This year, of course, it is “Learning 2005.”

I LOVE this guy’s conferences. I love flying in to Orlando and checking in to the hotel, knowing that, ahead of me, I have three days of fascinating talks, events, and opportunities ahead of me. And I’ve been waiting for MONTHS for this one.

The Learning 2005 Conference kickoff events on Sunday usually set the tone for the whole conference. Every year I wonder how Elliott Masie, of the Masie Center, can outdo previous years and every year he finds a way.

This year, my family and I arrived early so that we could spend Saturday and part of Sunday, before the conference kickoff in the evening, at Disney. I walked from the hotel room to the conference area earlier today to check in and get my badge and conference stuff that I always get (a conference bag and various things from learning companies).

I checked in, but, oddly enough, I also wound up rapelling. When I went into the room set aside for conference check ins, there was a HUGE rapelling wall there as well. I guess this is the ultimate in “experiential learning.” And, seeing as how I’m totally gung ho for this kind of learning, I thought I would give it a try. I did manage to get a little more than half way up the wall before I had to rapel back down. Not bad for a complete novice.

Beyond that, the kickoff this evening was interesting as always. Here as some of my thoughts and comments:

FIRST THOUGHT: The conference began with a story by Elliott Masie of meeting a new employee, fresh from college. He is not into traditional company orientation programs (neither am I, by the way) and decided just to take the new employee to Starbucks for a sit-down and a conversation about the company and her new role.

The new employee didn’t want to do it. Instead, she asked if everything he was going to relay might be on a CD or something.

The long and the short of it was, this new employee was used to learning via the Internet. She’s a chat expert, used to using Google to find information, and email to her is ancient technology.

In other words, socializing on that level is not a comfortable dynamic for her. Rather, she is used to communicating virtually, not in the actual world, and since most communication is either body language or tone of voice, it is quite possible that real communication was too uncomfortable.

At least, that’s MY story.

So, what does this mean? Perhaps that people in my profession, corporate learning, will soon have to incorporate basic communication skills training into their lexicon of courses. Social skills training for the digitally “ept” and socially inept.

MASIE CENTER LEARNING AWARDS:
-CNN: Grace Dyson, Director of Learning(?) at CNN was awarded the first honorable mention from Elliott Masie for “Inspirational Learning.”

Elliott had been visiting CNN right around the time Katrina hit and he talked about Katrina reporting, all ofthe feeds which were coming in and reports from “citizen journalists.”

What Elliot didn’t ask was how CNN and other news organizations vetted the information coming in. This is an important point in my opinion because every network struggled with this aspect of Katrina. Eyewitness accounts were grossly misleading.

So what do we do about this now that we know how poor a job “citizen journalists” can do? Are there ways to rank the information on a reliability scale that helps news sources insert information into their regular news feed at the right time?

I think this is the ONLY real way to go. The stories generated during the Katrina disaster, which were faithfully echoed by every network on cable and regular TV were all completely wrong. There has to be a way from keeping those who report the news out of the news, if you know what I mean. They should report, not become the subject of reports because of their reporting.

Overall, CNN seems to have done a really phenomenal job helping people to learn on the job. Making the learning very hands on and very relevant to their jobs. Exactly the kind of learning that we need to focus on as an industry, if you ask me.

The second award went to “eLearning For Kids,” a global non-profit foundation which is attempting to provide high quality, engaging curricula world-wide for free. Uses gaming style designs to keep children engaged. I think this is an approach that is long overdue. The fact is software companies have been making money for at least a decade now by designing educational games for children. Kids take to computers easily, so designing friendly courses online for children is the right way to go.

For those of you out there who, like me, have young children, Zoo Tycoon was given an honorable mention by one of four children who were with the foundation’s President to speak about their learning experiences.

Boston Scientific was the third company which received an award. They make
medical equipment and have helped to innovate the medical field in many ways.

One of the interesting topics of their discussion was in regards to health wikis which are out there. Apparently, there are tons of online resources. The gentleman speaking on behalf of his company gave a great tip regarding working with your doctor. He mentions that we can help ourselves by writing down our health history as it applies to whataver you are going to speak with a doctor about. It’s the best way to aid them in making a proper diagonsis.

That’s all for this evening. More coming tomorrow!

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com