Posted 6:36 PM by George Siemens
Steve and I are presenting at the UNEVOC conference tomorrow (Using E-Learning and Multimedia to Develop Technical Skills). In preparing for our presentation, I've been spending time reflecting on the goals of education (one of those "get back to the roots of the industry I'm in" moments"). Here's a list (drawn from Dewey, Bergevin, Apps, Lindeman):

• Acquire tools for survival - physical, emotional
  
• To discover meaning
  
• Learning to learn
  
• To create a more humane environment/society
  
• Role in social reform/reconstruction
  
• Not only to equip to contend with reform, but to initiate
  
• Secure democracy
  

Looking at that list, it's easy to get that feeling of "wow, what a huge responsibility/honour it is to teach". Elearning fulfills all of these goals of education and adds two dimensions - accessibility and flexibility.

Posted 5:54 PM by George Siemens
"SCORM is not for everyone"- ADL responds
Quote: ""SCORM is not for everyone"' article provoked quite a few reactions around the web; both positive and negative. But we wanted to give ADL itself an opportunity, and Mark Oehlert, ADL's communications officer, was kind enough to take up the gauntlet and respond to some of the main points reported in the article."
Comment: Response to an article I linked to several weeks ago: SCORM is not for everyone.

Posted 7:14 AM by George Siemens
E-learning is where the money is at- new reports
Quote: "According to the most recent study of corporate America made by the Masie Center Think Tank, 92 per cent of large organisations are implementing some form of on-line learning this year.
Two recent studies--one by On-Line Learning magazine and the other by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD)--show that up to 60 per cent of companies in the US use some form of e-learning."

Posted 6:57 AM by George Siemens
Open Citation Linking
Quote: "Imagine, as a researcher, the prospect of free, instant access, at any time, anywhere, to all peer reviewed papers and data that might affect your work. How much better would that be than the present situation? Such a prospect is achievable through the process of authors self-archiving their eprint papers in open-access archives that comply with the Open Archives Initiative (OAI)."
Comment: This is a fairly intense starter article on open archives...but it does communicate the value of open access to journals as a means of furthering knowledge development and growth. For more information see: Open Archives Initiative ("The Open Archives Initiative develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content. The Open Archives Initiative has its roots in an effort to enhance access to e-print archives as a means of increasing the availability of scholarly communication.")