8/14/2019 How eLearning Professionals Learn About eLearning

1/2

E-Learning Professionals Learn About E-Learning http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/mar2003/

1/8/2005 1

How E-Learning Professionals Learn About E-LearningBy Jay Cross

Learning Circuits Blog facilitator Jay Cross recently asked readers about their informallearning practices. Here's what respondents had to say.

Many of us dedicate a lot of time implementing e-learning to help our colleagues learn. Arewe eating our own dog food? Or, more politely, do we eat our own cooking?

Marc Rosenberg, Allison Rossett, and Bill Horton have taught me a lot about e-learning. Iveread their books, attended their presentations, and kept up with their articles. In the closingsession at ASTD TechKnowledge 2004 in Orlando, Lance Dublin asked Marc, Allison, andBill how they learn about our ever-changing field. Marcs most important source ofinformation is email from friends and colleagues. Allison relies on listservs and mailing lists.Bill is wary of starry-eyed evangelists, so he likes to try things out on his own machines.

Think about it. How do you learn whats happening? What sources do you trust? Whatsimportant to you? Conferences? Books? Articles? Email? Colleagues? Blogs?

Recently, I asked readers of the Learning CircuitsBlog how they keep up with what's goingon in e-learning. Heres how readers rated the importance of various sources of informationabout learning and e-learning.

Most Important Least Important

friends or colleagues Google Learning Circuits(of course!) email and listservs blogs

books peer interaction atconferences--between sessions

supplier guidance e-learning courses mentors or bosses magazines conference sessions

Its important to note that only eighteen people participated in the survey. Granted, thats asmall sample, but the results are sufficiently clear-cut to suggest that theyre reliable. Buthow representative are these findings? When you take an online survey, its hardly a surpriseto attract people who value gathering information online. For example, we wouldnt havefound as many people who hated conferences if we had waited to conduct the survey atASTD International Conference & Exposition 2004 in San Diego. Therefore, it stands toreason that people who read the LC Blog value blogs more than conferences andmagazines as important information sources.

Heres a closer look at some of their comments about specific information sources.

Most of the respondents said that they place a higher value on information from individuals:friends, fellow bloggers, authors, and people who send them email or that they meet atconference. As a group, they didnt put much stock in information from organizations:suppliers, magazines, and conference sessions. Note: E-learning courses andmentors/bosses ranked low in part because half of the respondents marked them as NotApplicable.

Whats even more interesting but not surprising is that with the exception of books, the mostimportant sources are all free. For example, Saba, Docent, SmartForce, NetG, Click2Learn,DigitalThink, IBM, and dozens of other suppliers have poured plenty of money into teachingbuyers about how to be informed e-learning consumers. But it appears that suppliers cantbuy credibility. Advice to suppliers from poll participants: Read and live The Cluetrain

Jay Cross is co-author of

Implementing E-Learning andprincipal of the Internet Time

Group.

http://www.docu-track.com/index.php?page=38http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/mar2003/cross.htmhttp://www.docu-track.com/index.php?page=38http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/mar2003/cross.htmhttp://www.docu-track.com/index.php?page=38

8/14/2019 How eLearning Professionals Learn About eLearning

2/2

E-Learning Professionals Learn About E-Learning http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/mar2003/

1/8/2005 1

Manifesto, and talk with customers and prospects in a tone they will understand andappreciate. Start a useful blog of your own, but dont let the sales department write it! Spendfewer resources on hype and more on developing research and white papers.

Not to toot our own horn (but why not?), Learning Circuits, which carries little in the way ofadvertising, is ranked higher than magazines such as Training, T+D, and e-learning, whichare chock full of ads. And for the most part, because its online, Learning Circuitsis able todistribute information faster than print publications.

In addition, the survey asked about the importance of some specific blogs, including Stephen

Downess OLDaily, e-learningpost, Internet Time Blog, and elearnspace. This question ledto an apples-and-oranges comparison about individual blogs compared to all magazines asa category. Three-quarters of the respondents seemed to value blogs as informationsources. They stated that blog are responsive and capsulate reviews and opinions that savethe readers time. Stephen Downess OLDailyreceived the most praise for cogent pointersand balanced opinions. Several people noted that e-learningpostis particularly good. EdTech, elearnspace, and Kairosnewswere also mentioned.

With regards to printed sources, there was little agreement beyond recognizing that theresno single source. Whitepapers, T+D, e-learning, Fast Company, Wired, Harvard BusinessReview, and OReilly technical books were mentioned. Other recommended books were

E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Ageby Marc J.Rosenberg

The ASTD e-Learning Handbook : Best Practices, Strategies, and Case Studies foran Emerging Fieldby Allison RossettPlanning and Design for High-Tech Web-based Trainingby David E. Stone,Constance L. KoskinenDesigning Effective Instructionby Jerrold E. Kemp, Steven Ross, Gary R. Morrison

Conferences in general took a beating. Indeed, one respondent exclaimed, I hateconferences. All of them. However, Training Directors Forum and TechLearn were praisedfor being less vendor-like. Online Educa in Berlin was praised for being small yet able tocover the important fields.

Bottom lineHow can those involved in e-learning stay up to speed? Poll participants recommend the

following:

Read blogs. Write a blog. Start a group consolidation blog. Get a syndicatedblog-feed.Subscribe to e-learning mail lists.Scan lots of Websites every day.

Most importantly, develop a network of people you trust, and share information with them.

Published: March 10, 2003

http://www.docu-track.com/index.php?page=38http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/mar2003/cross.htmhttp://www.docu-track.com/index.php?page=38http://www.docu-track.com/index.php?page=38http://www.docu-track.com/index.php?page=38http://www.docu-track.com/index.php?page=38http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/mar2003/cross.htmhttp://www.docu-track.com/index.php?page=38