DevLearn - Ken Robinson Keynote

Notes from Sir Ken Robinson's keynote talk at DevLearn...

I've seen Ken on his Ted talk which I've embedded below:


His talk was quite entertaining and followed somewhat his talk from Ted. A few of the thoughts or points from his talk:

• $3.5B spent in California on state school system - $9B spent on prison system
• Creativity can be facilitated and supported to foster innovation
• Audience rated themselves average roughly of 7 in creativity and 7 in intelligence
• 73% give themselves different marks - tend to believe that there is a difference between creativity and intelligence
• Creativity and intelligence are intimately related - highest form of intellectual exercise is creativity
• Capacity to think of lots of ideas - divergent thinking
• Genius level among 3 - 5 year olds in divergent thinking - 98%
• At ages 8-10 - 32%
• 13-15 - 10%
• 25+ - 2%
  
• Education teaches you that there is one answer, its in the back, don't look, and don't talk to anyone else either
• We encourage collaboration outside the classroom
• Misconception about creativity - I'm not creative. If someone says "I'm not creative" it doesn't mean they are not capable of becoming creative.
  
• Can be creative about anything - not just arts - including things like math, etc.
• Technology fundamentally changes learning
• Creativity is the way to compete in a flat world (my words not his)
• Creativity is a practical process
• Intelligence is tremendously diverse, intensely dynamic, connections between domains, distinct
• Real question is not how intelligent your are but how you are intelligent
• And not how creative you are but how you are creative
• How do you compose great groups in organizations that can be intelligent and creative
• How do you promote culture that will be creative
• Think of yourself as a farmer - you can't make a plant - you must create the conditions where plants (people) will flourish

I need to look at Divergent Thinking and how you can build skills around creativity.

Is Good Enough Good Enought?

This morning at DevLearn I did an informal session with Lance Dublin on management issues. Several interesting topics came up, but one that really struck me was around producing eLearning that is good enough vs. trying to produce better learning or what you consider to be a better solution.

This is a topic that we've discussed before including in the Big Question for January - Quality vs. Speed and What Clients Really Want and Big Question Follow-up - Are There Trade-Offs?

This morning's discussion was interesting because it felt that while we'd like to produce what we consider to be better, most of us are "settling" for "good enough." And we recognize that in many cases, good enough is good enough.

There are exceptions such as when there's a clear value proposition for producing something better or when the learning / behavior change ties directly to metrics the organization cares about, e.g., customer satisfaction, sales, etc.

But what does this mean for all the rest of the sessions going on that tell us how to produce a better course, improve interactivity, etc.? Are they marginalized by this? Aren't we all marginalized by this?

Wow, what a bad way to start a conference!

LMS Selection Presentation

Just to close the loop on my series of posts that I created as part of preparing my presentation:

• LMS Team Size and Time
• LMS RFP
• LMS Selection Presentation Reformulated
  
• LMS Selection Team and Stakeholders
• LMS Selection Process
• LMS Satisfaction Features and Barriers

Thanks again for the input. It helped.

Here's the presentation on from slideshare:

| View | Upload your own

Other posts on LMS:

• Learning Management Systems (LMS) Gotchas
• Tracking Without an LMS
• LMS Dissatisfaction on the Rise
• Do You WANT an LMS? Does a Learner WANT an LMS?
• Moving from One to Many - LMS Products are Two Generations Behind
• Leading with an LMS - Harmful to Your Health (or Skipping Stages ...
• Tools for On-Demand Information - An LMS?
• Point Solutions vs. Suites and Composition

Kevin Oakes on the Rise and Fall of the LMS

Sitting in a fun presentation by Kevin Oakes at DevLearn on the Rise and Fall of the LMS. He pointed back to entry of various players in the market and particularly the enterprise vendors as opposed to pure-play vendors from articles five years ago. See:

• “Supplier Savvy: Will Enterprise Software Companies Take Over E-Learning?”
• “Enterprise Software Redux,”

In terms of "The Fall" his main point was that LMS will lose out to broader spectrum solutions - particularly Talent Management / Human Capital Management. Part of the rationale for this argument is that the LMS market is not ever going to be "huge" - meaning the market leaders are $100M companies and they likely can't grow much beyond that. So, how can you get big? You go broader.

And when you go look at the LMS providers, they don't call themselves an LMS anymore:

• •SumTotal is a global provider of talent and learning management solutions.
• •Saba is the premier global provider of strategic human capital management (HCM) software and services.
• •Plateau is a leading provider of talent management software, content and services designed to increase workforce productivity and drive business success.
• •Learn.com is the worldwide leader in on-demand workforce development and productivity.
• •GeoLearning is the leading provider of Managed Learning Services and on-demand learning and performance technology.
• •KnowledgePlanet is a leading provider of performance-based learning solutions and services that drive business alignment, operational efficiencies and competitive advantage through workforce and talent development.

These descriptions clearly indicate they are going after the talent management marketplace.

His bottom line ...

• LMS is falling
• HR software and LMS are moving towards becoming talent management.
  

Oh, and we need to watch out for losing software aimed at our needs.

LMS - Questions

I'm about to present at the LMS session at DevLearn. Lance just asked everyone for the key questions they have given where they are. I wanted to capture this to be able to come back and talk about a few of these items later:

• What are the benefits, ROI, outcomes to be expected from LMS implementation?
• What are the implementation, acquisition, options - insource, outsource, build vs. buy?
• What are the challenges and pitfalls of integrating with multiple learning sources?
• How do you train and support staff so they use the system effectively?
• How does the LMS support or enhance curriculum planning?
• How complicated do you make it? Should you just get going with an LMS or wait until you really know what you need (which might take years)?
• How do you get buy-in from staff and organization?
• What are the costs? What's reasonable?
• How do you integrate with other tools and databases?
• What is the future for LMS products?
• Does the LMS help with eCommerce?
• Do you want to couple LCMS and LMS selection?
• Is it a good idea to have an integrator handling the LMS (Accenture, IBM, ACS, etc.)?
• How long does it take to select and implement?
• Make or buy?
• Migrating from one LMS to another?
• How do you deal with more than one LMS?