Konrad Glogowski writes about an interesting case of technology letting him down.  He has an online community for his students - mainly blogging.  Here is the actual posting that describes his experience.  http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/2005/12/07/tools-interiorized/

What I found more interesting was how his students were so dependent on the community. He states, "It quickly became clear from what they were saying to me that blogging was synonymous with English class, that their class consisted primarily of a community and that its absence had an impact on learning.

It has been my experience that most people want to learn in small, quick ways.  My theory is that anytime a shortcut can be taken in life, including learning, it is human nature to take the "easy" way.  If I can get a lesson in 5 minutes that answers my question and allows me to move on with my task at hand, I'll take the brief lesson and sacrifice a deeper understanding of the broader concepts - even to the point of losing any context in which the lesson exists.

There is a new website that provides short tutorials on technical subjects (more below).  They are mostly nicely done in Flash.  But I haven't seen any with audio; nor any with actual simulation interactivity.  I looked up about 5 technical terms.  All were visually appealing, however there was a lack of depth that left me wanting a bit more explanation.  I learned some information and liked the quickness.  It didn't make me feel like I learned enough to do anything with the information.

I just read an article about an Accenture survey that shows a significant drop in middle managers' satisfaction with their employers - in the last year.

What does this have to do with e-Learning?  I've read articles in the past that made the claim that any corporate offered training, including e-Learning, improves employee satisfaction.  The premise is based on employees feeling wanted and needed by their employer.  And they felt like the employer was providing benefits that improve the employees' market value.

Common sense tells me that premise is probably true.  However, I would also content that the mere offer of learning opportunities would suggest to an employee that they are considered a valuable player - worthy of investment. 

This recent book by Samantha Chapnick and Jimm Meloy focuses on the best practices of over 400 e-Learning programs. I have not read it yet, but I wonder if anyone in our community would offer their review of it. The following is an excerpt from the editorial reviews on Amazon:

Book Description
The same people who brought you the most widely used guide to preparing for eLearning are bringing passion back to your learning and training programs. The authors culled through over 400 eLearning programs, hundreds of popular entertainment pieces, and interviews with over 100 people in widely disparate areas to answer a simple question: What will make eLearning have as much impact as popular culture? Renaissance eLearning is the answer. It has everything you need to infuse eLearning with the same magnetism and addictive powers of the typical video game, song, movie, or other form of entertainment. With this book you’ll learn:

Here is something that surprised me....you can get college credit for training at McDonalds.

At the age of fifteen, McDonalds was the only place I could get a job so I could stop delivering newspapers at 6:00 am.  I enjoyed working with other teenagers, and it was great experience.  I learned many concepts of production management from working in the burger assembly line.  It may seem like a menial job, but I truly learned some valuable lessons in that job.  It was my first exposure to job politics - and to the difference between good and bad bosses.  Manufacturing efficiency at McDonalds was simply a given.  I was appalled years later when I worked at General Motors Technical Center and observed the enormous inefficiencies and bureaucracy - which made me frequently revisit my McDonalds' experience.

http://www.learningcircuits.org/case_studies.html This is a page full of links to articles describing case studies from various corporations.

"Recent research, from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), indicates that over half of organisations (54%) use e-learning. It is used to deliver up to 10% of current training by time – and this is set to more than double. CIPD have put a selection of case studies together, which offer employers and managers some practical ideas and sound principles when tackling the problems of implementing e-learning in their organisation."

These are some stats about e-Learning in the UK.

For the full article:

http://www.onrec.com/content2/news.asp?ID=8931