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The Promise of E (for Excellent) Learning
 Today, companies want and need employees to acquire knowledge and skills; that's what translates into improved corporate performance and increased shareholder value. But companies traditionally needed to be organized, and as they organized learning into a corporate function, something got lost. We ended up measuring the number of filled seats in our classrooms; we talked about days of training as if all learning could be packaged. Efficiency experts might have been thrilled, but we surely didn't get the learning results we wanted. Learning is idiosyncratic. What I want and need to learn, how long it will take me, at what times of the day or night I'll be able to focus on learning, whether I'll do better with a book or one-on-one coaching - that makes up my unique learning profile.
In the 80s, we believed that the computer would make good on the promise of individualized and just-in-time learning. Frankly, most CBT, even with the high production values we could get by the 90s, didn't do particularly better than the factory-like approach of much instructor-led training. It turns out that the delivery method alone is necessarily what makes for learning.
I guess there's some sort of poetic balance to the fact that just as we're entering a new century, a new millennium, we're also beginning a new era in business, communication, commerce, and, I hope, learning. I'm referring, of course, to the possibilities created by the Internet.
 So what possibilities do I see for learning? I see content on every subject I want, ready whenever I want it, available either in small chunks or whole courses. I dream of asking for help and having an expert coach always ready to answer me. I see taking an online class with people from all over the world or just using the Web to sign up for a class at the training center around the corner. I imagine a community of peers interested in the same things I am; I can swap experiences and ask questions. I see integrating what my employer needs me to learn for my current job with what I want to learn for my next one. I dream of creating my own Learning/Career Account, where I can bank my accomplishments and track my progress, just as I do with my financial IRA.
Courtesy: Nancy Weingarten, Founder,
Inside Technology Training
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