Rant #2: Conferences without the Conferring are a Con!

I cannot stand conferences that talk me to sleep or PowerPoint me to death.

But I am inspired by those that allow delegates to contribute to the event and involve them in speaker presentations.

A speaker who has “written the book” on the subject and simply delivers a lecture is giving little more than a talking version of the book, but with less depth and at higher cost. You might just as well watch the presentation on video.

Surely the point of being together in the same room is to generate interaction? A creative speaker would use the presentation to engage delegates in discussion, and incorporate their feedback in the rest of their talk. In short: speakers should listen as well as speak, and presenters should actually be present.

Nowadays I can only bear conferences that encourage conferring, conversation and interaction with the speakers and fellow participants, so that we can exchange real experiences and communicate with each other.

How often have we heard it said that the best bit of a conference is the break when you get the opportunity to talk with other delegates? How much better to have some formal time scheduled for these informal conversations? Then you could chat with many people you would otherwise never meet, and have unrushed exchanges with those that share similar interests.

We can learn a great deal about successful group activity from the Web 2.0 revolution on the internet, where sites focus on contributor-supplied content. For instance Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) is an online encyclopaedia, based around the principle that the knowledge of an interested group which uses and maintains the information is greater than that of an individual specialist. It allows most articles to be changed by almost anyone with access to the website.

Another is myspace (www.myspace.com), a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos.

Similarly, conferences could raise their game by allowing all present to participate, contribute, express themselves and be listened to. Some have already taken this delegate focus to extremes, with unconventional and bold “unconferences” and “open space technology”. These are group sessions that run without prior agenda or speakers, and look to the delegates to create content on the fly.

I favour a hybrid somewhere between the two; top speakers to attract interest alongside a focus on delegates engaging in facilitated discussion.

The conferences that compel me to stay include a blend of “unpresentations” where speakers encourage delegate-to-delegate discussion; “questions & unanswers” in which the standard, rather passive, Q&A session expands to a more vibrant group interaction that includes answers from delegates; “unplugged" sessions in which speakers talk without using PowerPoint as a prop; “speed meetings”, in which delegates who would otherwise not meet engage in short informal dialogue and finally “facilitated roundtables” where a handful of delegates talk openly.

Nowadays I no longer stay at the conferences that talk me to sleep or PowerPoint me to death. Like many other delegates, I walk.

The Learning Circuits Blog "Big Question"

Learning Circuits has posted the question "Should All Learning Professionals Be Blogging?", and many are joining the resulting debate.

Clive Shepherd made the sobering observation that "Most learning professionals have never heard of blogs" and certainly this is borne out by my experience. Over the past few months I have canvassed a few hundred L&D managers and their staff here in the UK about their Web 2.0 awareness. About half will admit to never having heard of blogs, and only a half of these have heard of a wiki.

I think that because these L&D professionals are the gatekeepers for workforce development they have a responsibility to understand the new technology. And the very best way to do this is to blog.

The follow-up question for is "So, What Can We Do About It?".

What we as a community for Learning & Development across the workforce are doing about it is creating an area where L&D professionals in the workforce can blog and build a wiki about their work, sharing experiences and discussing challenges they face. It would be great to hear from anyone that would like to participate with us. This shared area will serve the dual purpose of supporting our community and giving people experience of blogging and wiki-ing(?).

Rant #1: Educational Prizes are Bad

There’s nothing wrong with awards per se - they can be great in the right context, however Learning & Development is not the right context.

Awards work well in a competitive environment. Take the Oscars for instance. A billion people worldwide watch the awards ceremony. People, moved by movies, enjoy the glamorous fashion extravaganza, try and second-guess the judging panel and cringe at the gushing acceptance speeches. Then there’s that awkward moment we all wait for, when the TV cameras focus on the losing nominees as they try to maintain dignity and applaud the winner with a smile – for many, possibly their finest acting moment!

Competition works very well in sport, which is awash with prizes and cups. Of course they say “it’s not the winning that counts, it’s the taking part”. Yet nothing can quite beat the buzz of coming first, as we shall soon rediscover when our boys again lift the Jules Rimet Trophy in Germany this Summer ;-). But for every winner there are many losers (at the world cup 97% of the teams will ultimately lose). I think marathons have become popular in part, because it is the victory over endurance that counts, and the winning, incidental.

I believe that Awards in Education and Learning & Development are counterproductive because developing people as individuals and team members is neither light entertainment, nor is it a competitive activity.

The point of Learning & Development is to empower individuals and their organisations and communities. Every step along the way is as valid as any other, each unit of development is of equal value. I believe that it is vital to acknowledge and reward each person’s growth for its own merit. To have a panel decide what is best or better disempowers all those involved.

This whole discussion takes me back to school sports and prize days. For the boys and girls that win the key prizes year on year, the winning boosts their already substantial sense of self.

But what of the ones that remain excluded from the “school Oscars” and never win the “school World Cup”? I can tell you that it falls to their parents to dig deep and boost their youngsters’ flagging self esteem in the face of the school’s non-acknowledgement.

These school events do not work well for the children as a whole because, although these are sporting and awarding events, they are fundamentally within an education context. And education is meant to uplift all who participate at all times. Isn’t that what good coaching does?

If there were an award for bad ideas, then awards for educational excellence would gain a special prize. Let’s find other ways to acknowledge and reward every learner for every step that they take.

The Secret of e-Learning Success is in the Blend

What makes an e-Learning intervention effective? Is the content engaging and clearly explained, the presentation unambiguous and easy to use, attention paid to learning styles and learner pace, the technology reliable, and are the exercises effective?

Our group members report that e-Learning is effective when blended with previous lectures, ensuing workshops and synchronized workbooks, coaching and mentoring.

In a recent survey of 300 users we found significant discrepancies in levels of satisfaction between people in different organisations using the exact same e-Learning application. In trying to understand this discrepancy and discover the secret of the successful blend, we are investigating right now the ways in which each implementation was introduced and supported.

Conference
We shall discuss our findings at our “e-Learning for IT Users” Conference at Hastings Borough Council 20th June, open to Public Sector participation.

We’ve been e-Training, not e-Learning

Once Upon a Time there were “Training Managers”. Today we find “Learning & Development” and “Workforce Development” Managers, a change that acknowledges client supremacy. It says “Mould your service around your workforce, stop shoe-horning them into your training”. Similarly learning that blends discussion/interaction with lecture, allowing participants to contribute is more effective than lecture on its own.

Unfortunately this didn’t occur to those working with the technology, who rushed headlong into again delivering content-focused training, albeit with the added-on personalisation of assessment, interaction and testing. Only now are we thinking how the technology can be used for client-focused learning. This is why I say that what we have had so far is e-Training, not e-Learning.

So I am delighted to report the birth of Informal Learning Online. This paradigm shift adds to the blend technologies that encourage student participation, contribution and ownership. I believe this to be a sophisticated development, one that means that now we can talk about e-Learning.

Conference
We shall discuss this important new development at our “Informal Learning Online” Conference at Reuters in London’s Docklands on 16th November, open to Public and Business Sector participation.