eLearnDevCon2006 Keynote with Kevin Kruse

Kevin Kruse from e-LearningGuru.com.

Industry threatened:
1) Industry is threatened: lack of measurable results
2) Vendors are threatened: clients don't choose quality
3) You job is threatened: by those who can do it cheaper

Kevin is talking about the web2.0, social networking, or Learning2.0 and asks if anyone is blogging the keynote right now.  So I raise my hand...I'm the ONLY one!  So he calls me up in front to promote elearndev.blogspot.com.  But the best part was the $100 bucks..."who says you can't make money blogging".  Actually, I'll send the money to a charity that takes PayPal.

Back to the keynote...Evidence-based Learning inspired by evidence-based medicine, but encouraged by evidence-based management.

Check out e-Learning and the Science of Instruction.
I'm thinking about the theories he is highlighting from the book and how they are supported in a complete learning ecosystem...a blend of formalized and informal learning methods/tools with just the right mix of user-generated content.  Of course this is just what's going on in my head while he talks and demos some good interactive activities.

I love the points he is covering.  Yet much of it is applied to what WE do today...create courses.  My new task is to map this evidence-based ISD theory and apply it to the user-generated world of web2.0.  Because my reaction to Kevin's msg is that some of this is what the "knowledge harvester" of the future will be doing.  We will begin to monitor the social networks and pull out the nuggets that can benefit from applying the theories into more formalized activities, or learning nuggets.

Print design study:  new learners should learn better from a magazine layout as apposed to a book style.  Just a thought but they wanted data so they did a study...(cue drum role)...the answer is that the layout did not matter from a learning standpoint.  Motivation still counts for more. 

Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curves:  This will be the future study that he will be undertaking this year.
I can't wait to see the results of applying evidence-based learning in this space.