Caught My Eye Today

» Is Google Making Our E-Learning Stupid? The Rapid eLearning Blog
When people are online, they tend to look at the screen and quickly scan for information. They’re not changing that habit for your course. Structure the information so that it is easy to recognize the critical pieces.

Every time I work on a project that involves simply documenting information in text pages that seem to go on and on (yes, we have a client that wants it like that!), I wonder if the learners will really have the patience to read through it all and even if they do, how much will they retain or more importantly how much will they finally use in their workplace?
Short capsules of information such as lists, diagrams, rollovers, etc. should be an integral part of instructional design. Listing key points, for example, is a great way to capture attention and enhance retention. Even text books and other references use lists, different formatting styles etc. to call attention to important points on a page or in a topic. This will not dilute the learning if these strategies are backed up with enough detailed information. At the very least, we should give the learner the option and ways of getting more information about the relevant topics.

The Bamboo Project Blog: e-Learning 2.0: Coming...
People are READING blogs and wikis pretty regularly, but they arent commenting on or editing them. We still have a way to go with the interactive aspects of social media, which to my mind are the primary reasons for using these tools for learning.

The biggest hurdle will be to first convince organizations that these tools are in fact beneficial and maybe even essential to learning. Then, there's the need to convince people to add a few more minutes to the time they spend reading and start adding their own view points. I know I don't do much of these myself although I would love to. I've been trying to change it but the process has been slow. Something or the other always comes up that seems to be more important. I'm also a bit wary of these tools because it's very easy to get carried away and end up spending hours instead of minutes in reading and contributing because there's so much good stuff out there!