When I hear people getting excited about eLearning 2.0 I confess that it takes some effort not to roll my eyes. I know that eye-rolling marks me as cynical - ostensibly even about eLearning 2.0 itself - and that's not the case at all. After all, what is there NOT to like about making any learning experience more interactive, relevant and engaging? I like the so-called 2.0 technologies (if by that one is referring to micro-blogging, deli.cio.us/Delicious, blogging, IM-ing, wiki-ing and so on....okay, so I'm not such a fan of digging. I wasn't a fan of cameras on cell phones, either. Give me time). I like RIAs a lot, and have great hopes for their use in learning. I'm interested in facilitating interaction and maximizing engagement in learning. It's nice to see the panoply of choices available for connecting with information and each other.
But it's also nice knowing that this interactive, networked "engagement layer" rests on top of a solid foundation of digital assets built with Web 1.0 technologies: portable document format - PDF, HTML, SWF, JPEG. Representational media that has been captured the results of creative expression in a digital form, making it easy to share, distribute, store, download. Digital assets that need to be tracked and managed.
It's also good to think about emerging enterprise and commercial infratructure that make it easier to extend really good digital experiences - such as streaming mobile video - just about everywhere, and making it both personalized and secure.
And I'm really going to be interested in seeing where 3D takes us. Not just as it relates to virtual worlds. The more I see everyone going wild for the Wii, the more I am impressed with the 3D modeling that has been used to develop the sensor technologies that help us drive Mario Kart and exercise with Wii Fit.
I wonder if others who weathered elearning melt-downs of the dot.com get that same tingling "spider sense" that I do, when we all try boil down an evolving morphing segment of an industry landscape into a single buzzword - such as "eLearning 2.0"
Case in point - Overdrive Interactive, an interactive media marketing company, has produced a really interesting diagram highlighting social media that they think you should know about. This diagram lists 14 different categories of social media: photo-sharing, reviews and travel, wikis search sites, podcasts, video sharing sites, blogging, microblogging, texting, life-logging, bookmarking, networking. Many different urls for many different companies providing social media services. Some very interesting ways to extend opportunities to participate, connect, follow. Especially when it's used in combination with other media that provides great depth of content, great degrees of security, appropriate representation, better distribution and the like
I wonder if the real questions are more about the variety, composition and management of the mix of technology experiences to be marshaled when facilitating learning and performance support rather than worrying about the categories of the tools that we use.
Comments