Online Educa E-learning for Defence and Security Forum - Berlin,
November 2006
This
was the second year that Online Educa had held its ‘E-learning
for Defence and Security’ forum, hosted by The New Security
Programme. It's a strange event that doesn't quite succeed in bringing
together two worlds, with delegates and speakers from the defence/police
sectors this year outgunning those from the IT security industry.
There's also a strange discontinuity in the focus of the topics presented
by each panel, with speakers from the defence sector talking about
the latest use of e-learning technologies in their training departments,
which could just as comfortably sit in any e-learning conference,
and experts from the security arena telling us about the latest risks
and threats from our ever-increasing use of ICT and the Internet,
whilst struggling to identifying any practical role for e-learning
in addressing them. One speaker seemed to have a great deal of technical
detail about network security which he felt compelled to impart, punctuated
by the odd comments that e-learning may or may not have role to play
but he wasn't really sure.
That said, there were some impressive e-learning initiatives presented.
One of the recurring themes, was that real value for the learner
and the organisation comes from providing an integrated knowledge
management and learning platform, of which an Learning Management
System (LMS) is just one component and not the Holy Grail. The Spanish
Navy's Virtual University Programme (UVICOA) has delivered benefits
not only of saving time and cost through a rationalized repository
of knowledge and skill-based online objects but also user-friendly,
quick access to relevant objects through a well-mapped search engine,
giving learners three practical routes into this extensive content
library. Polizei-Online for the Baden-Württemberg Police Force
has integrated their LMS into a portal providing knowledge, information
and tools for everyday police work. Forty departments, editorial
offices and expert groups supply the portal with news, articles,
training courses, tools, reference works and access to expert support.
The take-up of online learning is 'encouraged' by providing only
e-learning for elements of mandatory training, plus the portal is
the only way staff can register for any training programme.
The focus was on extracting real benefit from learning technology
rather than getting bogged down with it. The most commonly quoted
LMS was the open source ILIAS system, which must make some organisations
question why they have spent so much on the likes of Sum Total.
And there were real, working examples of using standards to allow
organisations to develop and share content across international
boundaries, such as Partnership for Peace community in conjunction
with the International Relations and Security Network.
As a whole, Online Educa reported 2048 registered delegates from
92 countries. Unfortunately speakers at the Defence and Security
day saw no more than about 40 delegates in attendance. This was
a shame as the overall quality of the presentations was higher than
last year, when there was more than double the number of attendees.
Security threats are growing faster than governments, organisations
or individuals seem to have the will or wherewithal to deal with
them. Whether it's about identity fraud, cyberspace attacks on IT
systems, or, more frighteningly, the use of the Internet by terrorists
to recruit jihadists from around the globe, launder funds, train
and spread propaganda, conspire and communicate, That seems worth
talking about, and identifying a role for e-learning is just one
bullet in a global war. But maybe a refocus is needed to clarify
what speakers should be bringing to this event, and to make potential
delegates feel it is worth differentiating this forum from the main
conference.
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