Just concluded a very interesting session chaired by Kevin Wheeler on developing leadership and management education with technology. Yesterday's session on a similar topic talked mostly about the need for authenticity as a driver for engagement and pointed out the fact that most of the senior managers/execs targeted for this kind of education were usually very short of time. This was different in that the speakers pretty much argued that that was a poor excuse - political will and commitment from the very top in favour of developing a learning/knowledge based organisation was the key. 

A good Q&A session followed - embarasingly I think I hogged it a bit! But I blame Graham Atwell for that since he avoided my question in the open plenary earlier in the day - I think I made up for that here.  

Very pleased to have had the chance to speak with the panel after the session. More pleased to discover that Kevin Wheeler's favourite resource, and the one he turns to first - is EMERALD! This is thrilling for me since he was one of the two people I really wanted to talk to this week. An informal chat with Bill Shea (Harvard Business Publishing) started over the peer review model and emerging informal learning and Communities of Practice - all very interesting and I hope it's something we can return to in time.

A very stimulating morning and good contacts made. Hope to see Bill next time he's in the UK and given the chance Kevin Wheeler too.

This is spooky. I just had a great discussion this morning about the peer review process and emergent web 2.0 technologies and informal learning; interesting to read about someone else talking about it today too.

This piece http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/ from Tony Karrer is something I'd like to return to. I wonder how much truth there is in it?

Wrapping up now for the final session from online educa. It's been great so far and now it is coming to an end. More details later.

The conference is coming to and - people drifting off early. The final seminar sesions are pretty empty!

I have enjoyed this enormously. It's a mark of the maturity of the technologies and their adoption by the teaching/learning professions that a conference of this size, breadth and depth can take place at all. I remember a time not that long ago when the industry was regarded with little affection or respect. That has changed. The reach of these technologies, especially the '2.0' components are really establishing the idea of lifelong, informal and always available learning in ways that ony a few years ago could only be imagined.

I'm also very pleased to report that Emeralds forward looking stance in this respect is one that is attracting attention and not a little respect, at least from the people I have spoken to over the last day or two. Knowledge transfer and learning - demand and supply side are changing fast and Emerald are now part of the discussion that will influence how this takes shape. Optimistic? Naive? Possibly, but consider this: The trend to Communities of Practice and informal learning are rightly considered powerful models for learning in small enclosed groups - but how do these CoPs, seperated by time, distance and discipline communicate with each other? I posed this question this morning and was happy to note that, for once, there was no fast answer - If I was a cynic I'd say this process had not been considered before. This is what Emerald has been doing for some time now.

I'm very optimistic about Emerald's place in the future exchange of knowledge, research and learning materials - if we continue to explore and engage with the learners and researchers and working managers today and tomorrow and offer them the routes to getting their content/research/experiences in front of an interested audience - which I'm sure we will do.

So it's been fun - and very stimulating and very encouraging though I must admit I'm a little "seminar'ed" out now. 

Negatives : Deciding to move out of my hotel at 11pm after a full day travelling to Berlin - tip: avoid the Movenpick Berlin if you can so you don't repeat this... 

I believe the slides from the presentations are to be made available. I'll post some of them to my filestore and will tag them 'Online Educa'.

A quick post from Liverpool train station. Just left a conference on the use and the future of the VLE.

Though it's always interesting to see what folk are up to it is a little depressing to discover that in many cases the stories aren't that different from years ago. However, not all bad - enjoyed Mark Stiles and Susan Neales (OU).

Must dash - train and OU tomorrow.

With everyone entering the holiday period now it's unlikely that there will be much activity on this site over the next week or two.

That's OK. 2006, in particular the last 3 months have been extraordinary when it comes to the development of Emerald R&D. With Emerald Management First launched in the New Year, and InTouch attracting much interest, plus the numerous joint project partnerships there is, perhaps, a shift in perception about what Emerald is capable of these days. 

With respect to Intouch, not so long ago we really struggled to find a reason to keep plugging away with platform, it's difficult to see what it actually 'does'. Still, we have plugged away and though InTouch is not quite a finished product, it's a lot better than it was. We have serious expressions of interest in it as a product already. And with a big push in early 2007 towards improved user interface, better on-screen instruction, improved contextual support and tighter integration with Insight, I'm sure InTouch can become part of the Emerald portfolio and deliver some real returns and offer real opportunities.

I still don't expect InTouch to set the world alight in early 2007 - but with the full backing of the Emerald business managers this can start to pay some of its development costs back. I hope so.

Other things to look forward to in 2007 :  

Mobile Emerald Content - Emerald content collections suitable for storage on any Handheld device

Mobile Business Learning - a joint development between ourselves and a consortia of content providers delivering business learning content to alumni and the general public

Emerald Learning Objects - a set of tools allowing subscribers to create their won SCORM Learning Object files from Emerald Articles 

Peer Services to Informal Communities of Practice - CoPs are good at transferring knowledge within the CoP membership; less good at reviewing and disseminating this content to other CoPs or new members - opportunities here?

We will be keeping a weather eye on Second Life. Very fashionable right now but is there any sustainable value in this model? I'm not sure. I've visited this a few times and dropped in an a number of University presences. Seems a little odd to me that given the completely open-ended nature of the Second Life Universe one would choose to build a lecture theatre as a means of conducting learning/teaching?? Or is that just me...

Podcasting? Possibly, but again until theres a model we can develop that sustains this in the long term unlikely.

And as far as R&D is concerned that is just the technical innovation. There is much to investigate with respect to journals, content and product innovation too e.g segmentation, industry variants and how to address the needs of the Corporate market.

2007 will I'm sure see us try a lot of things and choose not to pursue many of them; however, the ideas we do choose to purse will, I guarantee, be valuable, interesting, innovative and exciting. For us in R&D and for everyone in Emerald.

Happy New Year for 2007!