It was with great sadness that I took note of the recent demise of Training Magazine, and with it, the various Training Conferences. In one form or another, Training Magazine has been around for a long time. The magazine was in its 47th year and the Training Conference had just completed its 33rd annual event in San Diego.
Before there was an eLearning Guild, there was Training Magazine. The Training Conference got its start in New York City and grew to one of the most premiere events in our field. In the late 1990s, the heyday of e-Learning’s emergence as a force to be reckoned with, the Training Conference and the other events sponsored by Training Magazine, were quick to showcase this emerging field. Battered by the dot-com bust and several recessions, the conference grew smaller, but it never lost its drive for innovation.
Training Magazine also made a significant contribution to our field. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the magazine applied some real journalism to the topics of the time. Its editors, Jack Gordon, Chris Lee and others, as well as contributors like Ron Zemke, were unafraid to tackle the tough issues as well as some of the silliness of the training and e-Learning field, and to accept pieces from contributors that made you think. Articles like, “Is ISD Dead?” “A Rabble-Rousing Roundtable,” “The Training Waste Conspiracy,” and “Famous Trainers’ School,” among others, were unprecedented in their directness. Some of the arguments made then are still discussed today. Many people think the magazine lost its edge over the last few years and for many reasons, including the dismal economy and a variety of different owners, it fell on hard times and folded earlier this year. There continue to be rumors that someone will come in and resurrect it, and I hope they are true, but there is no question that the field has lost one of its most strident voices. Too bad.
Perhaps in part it’s the demise of print magazines in general – good or bad; replaced by Websites, blogs, Twitter, and other communication forms we have yet to devise. Perhaps we all have less time to read. But there is no substitute for substance, and at its height, Training Magazine had it in spades.
So, welcome to my periodic column…
Thanks to Bill Brandon, editor of Learning Solutions, and the good folks at The eLearning Guild, I’ve been given the privilege of this wonderful communication outlet. I’ve been around the training, learning, and e-Learning field for more than 30 years (you can Google me if you have nothing better to do), and I’ve written two books: E-Learning and Beyond E-Learning, as well as a bunch of book chapters and articles. I think I have more to say, and I first thought that the time was right for a third book.
But what should I call it? “Way Beyond E-Learning?” “Enough of E-Learning?” “The End of E-Learning?” Or, I could probably do something alphabetical. E-Learning? Been there, done that. M-Learning is taken. I-Learning? Doesn’t Apple own everything that begins with “i?” F-Learning? Not a good idea (sorry, “Formal learning”). Too many other letters – too exhausting.
Take it from me, writing a book is all time-consuming. Maybe there’s another way. So I thought about this column. Here’s a way for me to stay current, to provide insight and commentary, and to invite you to give me feedback, from accolades to rotten tomatoes. So I’m going to give it a shot.
Marc My Words… will appear every month in Learning Solutions. It will present relatively brief commentaries on our field, sniff out new ideas, provide some critiques, reviews, occasional interviews, and more. I’ll try to add a little humor from time to time and offer up some new ways of thinking about what we do. You probably won’t agree with everything, but I hope it will be fodder for some good discussions. What do you think about the state of learning and e-Learning? What pushes your “hot button?” Where do you think we are headed? Let me know.
