Most of the time, we work more or less in isolation from the rest of the e-Learning profession. When there's time to keep up with our own professional development, we read an article, scan some weblogs, and update our Facebook or Twitter comments. We stay pretty focused on the work at hand, and it's easy to lose sight of everything else that goes on in the e-Learning world.
But sometimes, we find ourselves in a place where we can feel the currents of change. There we can see all the paths that e-Learning is taking as our colleagues find new applications of technology that help people increase skill and knowledge and improve performance. This year's DevLearn was such a place.
With significantly more participants compared to last year, over 100 presenters, dozens of DemoFest projects, dozens of Breakfast Byte sessions, dozens of vendors in the Expo, and three great keynotes, the sense of opportunity and dynamic change was at times overwhelming. However, I will do my best in this summary to give you an overview of what we saw in San Jose during the week of November 5.
DevLearn at a glance
Over a thousand people attended DevLearn in total (see Figure 1), including those who came just for the Expo. Since DevLearn was in the heart of Silicon Valley, many who came were local or from the nearby San Francisco Bay area. However, there were participants from around the world, including Australia and India as well as from Canada and countries in EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) and Latin America. Vendors in the Expo also came from many different countries. Two of the sessions in DevLearn and the co-located Adobe Learning Summit were led by speakers via satellite from locations that were far away from San Jose.
Figure 1 Attendees ready for the start of the opening General Session.
Networking
At all conferences, many of the best learning opportunities happen in hallways between sessions, at meals, and in events (whether planned by the conference organizers or not) outside of the sessions themselves. (See Figure 2.) DevLearn was no exception. For example, attendees could choose from informal opportunities, such as the popular dinner groups on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Figure 2 Delegates network informally during the Expo Reception.
Breakfast Bytes were another opportunity for networking. These 42 informal morning gatherings were led by experts who gave short presentations and then led discussions among the participants. The groups included:
• Nick Floro on Quick Prototyping Techniques
• A discussion led by Silke Fleischer about whether rapid e-Learning gets a bad rap
• Clark Quinn helping participants identify the opportunities and pitfalls of m-Learning, and how they might use it
• Moodle discussion by Maggie Martinez and Michelle Moore
• Brent Schlenker on beginning podcasting
• Dan Carr sharing tips and tricks for ActionScript
• Clive Shepherd on Facebook and its relevance (or not) to e-Learning
• Joe Fournier offered his expertise in Articulate
These networking events and others helped participants to begin and end their day, and to thread their experience together with the experience of others. While some might dismiss networking as idle chatter, in fact such periods of active reflection are known to improve learning and to lead to innovation in applying new ideas back on the job. That's why opportunities for networking are a key part of DevLearn's design.
Learning before the program
Participants could choose to attend pre-conference workshops and symposia. This year, a fourth of the attendees took advantage of these opportunities. Heidi Fisk, The Guild's Executive Vice President, explains the difference between pre-conference workshops and symposia. "Pre-conference workshops are taught by one or two key experts, and they focus on 'how-to' knowledge and skills. They are not research-based, but they are very practical and grounded in practices that the experts have found to work. These sessions are didactic in nature. A symposium, on the other hand, is led by a team of four to seven experts who worked on a Guild Research Report. Attendees, who are mostly managers, receive a copy of the Research Report that the symposium addresses. These sessions involve dialog between participants and the teams of experts."
This year, the symposia on Learning Management Systems and on Mobile Learning were filled to capacity, reflecting the most pressing current concerns among managers. You can view a short video of part of the Mobile Learning symposium, including a presentation by Judy Brown and comments by David Metcalf and Ellen Wagner (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XggONvXan0). All of the pre-conference workshops were well-attended and a number of them also sold out.
One of the more unusual pre-conference workshops (in terms of the results) was "Practical Video Production for e-Learning," led by Steve Haskin. The 20 participants, in two teams, created two instructional videos as a three-hour project. These videos took center stage to great acclaim at the Wednesday morning Opening Session. You can view them on YouTube as well, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXUdYQ2KQB8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BHjN0J2mE0. (If these links do not work, search within YouTube by using the keywords “DevLearn 2007”. Please vote for both of these videos – we are attempting an experiment in viral distribution.)
Learning beyond the program
In addition to the program sessions (which I will cover later in this article), participants had a number of other choices.
Master Classes
Regular conference delegates and Expo-Only attendees could choose to attend any of 13 vendor-presented "Master Classes." (See Figure 3.) Each Master Class was an interactive learning session lasting 40 minutes, presented in the back of the Expo Hall. Every time I passed by, the Master Classes seemed to be full, and comments from those who attended were positive as to the value they received for the time spent. Some Master Classes were demonstrations that provided fundamental instruction on use of a particular product. Others were intermediate-level tips and tricks sessions. A third category provided advanced instruction covering high-end and undocumented technical product information.
Figure 3 Vendors presented Master Classes on their products.
Serious Games Zone
Since Immersive Learning Simulations (ILS) and e-Learning 2.0 were the topics of a number of sessions, the Conference included a Serious Games Zone (see Figure 4). This area included several real ILS so that attendees had the opportunity to see and use them. Predictably, Wii Bowling and Halo were big attractions for those who had never used a game system before, or whose last exposure was PacMan.
Figure 4
In the Serious Games
Zone, Steve Wexler watches
a DevLearn delegate
make a strike in Wii
Bowling.
Adobe Learning Summit
This was the first year that Adobe Systems, Inc. conducted a separate Summit focused on the company's tools and technologies as used for e-Learning. They chose to co-locate this Adobe Learning Summit with DevLearn, running it on Thursday afternoon and evening and on Friday morning following the Guild's conference.
Much of the Summit featured Adobe executives and product managers explaining Adobe's view of the e-Learning space. Ellen Wagner chaired a particularly important session for Authorware users. She and a panel provided a report on Adobe's evolving six-point plan for support of Authorware customers going forward following Authorware's EOD (End of Development) announced earlier this year. This plan includes support both for extending the value of the investment customers have made in the software, and for conversion of files and migration to other platforms.
As part of this plan, Adobe is making two important moves toward re-engaging the user community. First, Tom King is now an advisor to Adobe in the process (Tom is the AICC Communication Chairman and a long-time leader in the Authorware community). Second, Adobe has restarted engineering efforts focused on the Authorware player, with particular attention paid to known issues with Internet Explorer 7 and Vista. This should extend the life of Authorware Web-based content by about two years. Adobe will be publishing more information about these efforts on its Web site and on the AWARE Listserv, the primary online Authorware Professional discussion forum (http://ls.kuleuven.ac.be/archives/aware.html).
The DevLearn Expo
Vendor exhibits in the Expo are an important part of the DevLearn experience. Many delegates come to the conference specifically to talk to vendors, to collect product information and ask questions, as well as to get a better idea of what the vendor's products and services can do for them. (See Figure 5.) This year's Expo featured over 35 vendors.
Figure 5 DevLearn delegates watch a product demonstration in the Expo.
DevLearn creates events, such as the Expo Reception shown earlier in Figure 2, specifically to facilitate contact between delegates and vendors. Attendees also find these events worthwhile as an additional networking opportunity.
Notes on the keynotes
While every conference has keynote speakers, it is rare to see three keynotes as dynamic and inspiring as the three at DevLearn. (See Figure 6.) Participants were literally talking about each of them even after the conference was over.
Figure 6 The keynote speakers: Sir Ken Robinson, Paul Saffo, and Frans Johansson
Sir Ken Robinson: Out of our minds
Sir Ken Robinson opened the conference with a highly entertaining and effective exploration of imagination and creativity, and how these relate to the e-Learning developer. Sir Ken is an internationally-recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation, and human resources, and the author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. He was knighted in June 2003 by Queen Elizabeth II for his achievements in creativity, education and the arts.
According to Robinson, there is a single capacity that most people take for granted, and yet it accounts for our most amazing achievements. We should not take it for granted. This is the power of imagination. It's the most singular capacity that every human being has. We take it utterly for granted even though it accounts for our survival.
Furthermore, we are caught up in a revolution as the things we take for granted are turned on their heads. To meet this revolution, we must think differently, particularly about our own capacities and about our children. Nobody knows what the world will look like when today's five-year-olds retire in 2070. Many of our corporate structures and our processes, social, political, educational, are completely inept when it comes to their potential to adapt to change.
We are in a crisis of human resources, and this affects our ability to deal with other crises, such as those involving the environment, natural resources, and global warming. For generations, we have underestimated our best capacities. Most people have no idea what they are capable of. They are dislocated from their natural talents.
Doing something about this is particularly important for those in the corporate sector, particularly for those who work in the learning area, and even more particularly for those who work with new technologies. We have a historic opportunity to affect what the world of 2070 will be like. Imagination and creativity and their product, innovation, are fundamental to responding to this opportunity. We cannot meet the challenges unless we think strategically about cultivating our great capacities.
Creativity, to Robinson, is the process of having original ideas that have value. Most people and most organizations occasionally have good ideas. Robinson's interest is in “promoting the idea that creativity can be developed systematically.”
According to Sir Ken, "not creative" really just means, "I don't know how to do this." This also means that creativity can be taught and it can be encouraged. The process begins with not taking imagination for granted, and by helping people deal collaboratively with a world where the answers are not all black and white. Today, e-Learning is in exactly the right position to do that.
Paul Saffo: Living with uncertainty
Paul Saffo, keynote on the second day of DevLearn, is a technology forecaster and futurist. Specializing in the effect of long term change on business and society, he currently teaches at Stanford University and is a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He was the founding chairman of the Samsung Science Board and serves on a variety of other boards including the Long Now Foundation.
Saffo began by noting that uncertainty has deep educational and learning implications. People don't like uncertainty. We all like to minimize and gloss over uncertainty.
Uncertainty actually fuels the growth of e-Learning. The forces affecting the demand for e-Learning come from outside our business. Learning has become essential to survival, and so there is more demand for rapid e-Learning, continuing education, and network learning.
The Information Age is over, by Saffo's reckoning. He believes that information is now so ubiquitous that it has ceased to be information and has become media. The shift from mass media to personal media is also fueling our business in e-Learning.
Saffo explained that there are two types of words in our vocabulary. One is the entirely new type of word that appears out of nowhere (for example, blog, podcast). Such a word focuses on a concept we never knew existed. Other words have been around forever and we think we know what they mean, but the meaning has shifted. Our assumptions trip us up. Media is one such word that trips up many organizations.
The good news is this has happened before. We can extract some principles from history, and Saffo offered some rules for dealing with uncertainty:
- Look back. History does not repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.
- Every new technology drives new learning efforts.
- People's expectations about new technology always end up being surprised.
- E-Learning is about to become very important. Some in the room (and some reading this article) will find themselves millionaires because of this.
- Change is never linear -- it is an "S" curve.
- Our expectation is that it will be linear, but instead we go from overestimating the short-term effects of change to underestimating the long-term effects. Never mistake a clear view for a short distance.
- The important thing is to recognize when we have hit the inflection point -- where we pass from overestimating to underestimating. Look for something that has been failing for about twenty years. Columbus was not the first European to make it to the New World -- he was the first one to make it back.
- Whenever a new technology comes along, the first uses are to imitate something that already existed. This is the bakelite effect -- the first plastics were used to imitate wood.
- The biggest innovations in any field come from outside of it. So to know what's coming next in e-Learning, look outside e-Learning. Expect much more pervasive participation to be required as part of e-Learning. The issue is how to fully engage people and still leave them enough time to do all the stuff they have to do.
- Cherish failure, and give things away instead of trying to own them. Giving things away wins.
- Watch for big changes in e-Learning related to the availability of cheap sensors that will make it possible for applications and the equipment to truly interact with us.
- All the change that is going on only increases the value of e-Learning and what we do. The central player is no longer the industrial age worker (the "learner" in classic training that we often imitate when we create e-Learning). The central player is now the creator -- one who works and who consumes at the same time. We are in the "creator" economy. Creators may not realize they are creating something, they think they are getting something (e.g., Facebook, Google, Wikipedia).
- Learn to love uncertainty. Leave your fear of change.
Frans Johansson: Leading the new age of learning
Our third keynote speaker, on the last day of the conference, was Frans Johannson, author of The Medici Effect and Managing Director of Medici Capital Management.
Johannson opened by observing that we are desperate to generate innovation, but where do we find ground-breaking ideas, and what do we do with them? His answer begins with the notion that ground-breaking ideas are found at intersections. All new ideas are combinations of existing ideas, although not all combinations are created equal.
The farther apart the ideas, the more likely that the innovation will be exceptional. Johannson offered several examples, such as the office building in Zimbabwe that uses no air conditioning. The architect managed to create a successful design based on the way termites in Africa keep their mounds at a constant temperature. Based on this idea, the office building maintains a constant temperature of 73 to 77 degrees, while using less than 10 percent of the energy used by similar buildings. (The temperature range in Harare is 45 to 81 degrees Fahrenheit.)
Johannson's second point was that diverse teams see the same things differently. (Remember what Paul Saffo said about the two kinds of words in our vocabulary. Diverse teams have members who know or invent new words for concepts the rest of the team never knew existed, and within a team different members will have different definitions for the same word.) This in itself helps teams combine ideas that may be far apart to begin with. As a result, Johannson finds that innovative teams generate and execute more ideas, and diverse teams generate far more ideas. (Saffo: Cherish failure.) (Robinson: It's important to help people collaborate in order to find ways to deal with a world that is no longer just black and white.)
Here are the guidelines Frans Johannson offered at DevLearn for getting to intersections, having more ideas, and having better ideas:
- Find inspiration from fields or cultures other than your own, and dare to explore the connections.
- Leverage existing diversity.
- Use groups made up of different people.
- Bring in ideas from outside.
- Diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams quickly. This is a function of time. The challenge is to make the diverse teams outperform more quickly.
- Go intersection hunting. And remember that you don't have to change the whole world, just some part of it.
- Prepare to experiment, make mistakes, and fail.
- Reward output. Punish inaction.
- Try widely different ideas OR develop prototypes, simulations, and so on.
- Corollary: Drop the cost of trying new ideas.
- Think differently about risks. If you have a passion, pursue it. This is no more risky than pursuing something you don't care about.
The concurrent sessions
The sheer volume of content in the 94 concurrent sessions was amazing, and served as the catalyst for constant discussion and engagement in everything e-Learning. Here's what Joseph Fournier of Aetna had to say about the concurrent sessions:
"DevLearn is the ultimate e-Learning destination for serious professionals. We're all learners--whether you're a famous industry veteran or the newest person on your team--and at DevLearn we all learn from each other. The sessions are like hand crafted ice-cream, but the hallway conversations are the hot fudge topping... sometimes with nuts!"
DevLearn 2007 prepared participants to maximize new opportunities and to overcome the challenges they face in their organizations. It also energized participants with new ideas, practical knowledge, and excitement about new technological potentials. Mike Baker, South Carolina Department of Social Services, said:
"One of the things that make this conference so unique is that there are so many opportunities to learn in so many different ways. You find yourself learning not only from the formal sessions but from fellow participants as well. It helped me to see that a long road is far less intimidating when you have a map to help you find your way. DevLearn 2007 was by far the most information-packed, well planned and organized conference that I have ever participated in."
“How to” sessions
Most participants come to DevLearn to talk about tools and how to use them. This year's conference was no exception, and the scope of the tool sessions expanded to incorporate the growing use of media beyond PowerPoint. These sessions tended to be crowded. (See Figure 7.) Several sessions addressed the use of video formats and editing software. Others presented applications for audio editing and for podcasting. There were also sessions on tips and tricks for creating media to support immersive learning simulations (ILS) and mobile learning.
Figure 7
DevLearn 2007 delegates
in a concurrent session.
Classic tools for creating asynchronous e-Learning, such as Flash, PowerPoint, Captivate, Articulate, and Lectora drew large audiences as well. A number of sessions presented tips and tricks for synchronous e-Learning tools. Related sessions presented ideas for team development of e-Learning.
Learning management systems (LMS) were the topic of additional sessions. Even though some have forecast the death of the LMS, interest in the selection, management, and implementation of these systems remains strong. Considering the size of the investment of time and money involved in an LMS installation, it is hardly surprising that turnout in these sessions was strong.
While DevLearn has a strong “hands-on” orientation, there is a large contingent of managers who attend each year. Managers had plenty of sessiions from which to choose. Several offerings provided a forward look at where e-Learning is headed and at strategic planning. Discussion of ROI (Return on Investment) was well-represented. In addition, there are certain areas where development, design, and management overlap. Sessions of interest to managers as well as others included those that addressed project management, preparation of subject matter experts (SMEs) for delivery of synchronous learning, assessment strategies, and the development of storylines for engaging e-Learning.
Ruth Clark and Silke Fleischer (see Figure 8) addressed another area of overlap in their session on evidence-based guidelines for e-Learning. Ruth presented the findings from her book, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction. She and Richard Mayer have updated the earlier edition of this book to include new research, such as the effects of using avatars to deliver instruction. In the same session, Silke showed how to implement these findings and Ruth's recommendations in Adobe Captivate.
Figure 8
Ruth Clark and Silke
Fleischer discuss evidence-
based guidelines
in e-Learning.
As e-Learning continues to grow and to diversify its methods, we are seeing more interest in and use of social software. The conference program certainly reflected this. There were many sessions on these and on Web 2.0 tools, such as the one by Kristen Kahlich (see Figure 9).
Figure 9 Kristen Kahlich gives participants tips on using Web 2.0 tools in e-Learning.
Other sessions addressed ILS (games), informal learning, and virtual worlds, and their application to e-Learning. These combined a look at the potential (since use of these tools is still in early days) and the actual existing tools that many developers have already adopted.
DemoFest
Every year e-Learning DemoFest provides a remarkable showcase for DevLearn Conference participants to show off their best projects, see a wide variety of e-Learning demos, talk with other developers about their projects, and generally have a great time learning and networking with colleagues. (See Figure 10.) It's like a science fair where you can move from table to table to view demos of e-Learning programs and talk to the designers and developers about the goals and objectives, tools, technologies, processes, and challenges they faced with their project. (See Figure 11.)
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DemoFest is also a low-key “people’s choice” style competition where everyone has a chance to vote for their favorite presentations. The eLearning Guild is planning an online event in a few weeks at which the winners of the competition will discuss their projects. This year’s winners in each category are:
Best of eLearning DemoFest 2007
Emag Machine Operations Course for Harley-Davidson Motor Company
Presented by Joe Kitterman and Leslie Myers, Oxygen Education and Al Salenline, Mike Terwilliger & Ralph Kraussel, Harley-Davidson Motor Company (See Figure 12.)
Figure 12 The Oxygen Education/Harley-Davidson Motor Company team accepts the
Best of eLearning DemoFest award from David Holcombe.
Best Product/Service Provider Entry
Emag Machine Operations Course for
Harley-Davidson Motor Company
Presented by Joe Kitterman and Leslie
Myers, Oxygen Education and Al Salenline, Mike Terwilliger & Ralph
Kraussel, Harley-Davidson Motor Company
Best Non-Product/Service Provider Entry (Tied)
Canine Lameness Learning Module
Presented by: Heather Caprette, Ohio
Northern University
KPMG Expense Reimbursement Training
Presented by Daniel Kazup, KPMG
Best Mobile Learning Course
Sales Quenchers – Revolutionary
mLearning-based Sales Training Program
Presented by Robert Gadd and Katherine
Guest, OnPoint Digital Inc.
Best Synchronous Learning Course
Sun Microsystems' New Hire Experience
Presented by Brandon Carson, Sun Microsystems
Inc.
Best Blended Learning Course
Ariel: A Reader’s Interactive Exploration
of Literature
Presented by Nick Floro, Sealworks
Interactive Studios
Best Use of New Technologies
3-D Instructions – An EPSS Prototype
Presented by John D'Amours, Can Do It LLC
Closing
Welcome to all our Associate Members around the world. We hope that you will find value in each issue of Learning Solutions, and that you will be inspired to write articles and columns to share your work with the tens of thousands of e-Learning professionals who now read this e-zine every week. Great professional development, and so is speaking for our events.
Thanks to all who attended DevLearn 2007. We are still accepting proposals for The Guild Annual Event and the Online Forums for 2008. We look forward to seeing many of you next spring at the Guild Annual Event.
