Book review
Learning Rants, Raves and Reflections
Edited by Elliot Masie
Publisher: Pfeiffer (2005)
Review by Donald Clark, Epic
Let me review this book through some rants, raves and reflections
of my own.
Rave: Loved Ellliot's introductory rants, raves and
reflections. Didn't agree with them all but it made good reading
and set the tone for the book.
Operational Excellence and Next Generation by David Metcalfe
Reflection: Really a précis of his book on Blended
Learning so nothing new here. His point about blending with performance
support and knowledge management is well made but the blended debate
has moved on.
Dining with the Executives: Doing the Right Kind of Training
That Will Get You a Seat at the Table by Beth Thomas
Rant: Beth's a gusher as her first three sentences
prove - they all start with the words 'I love…'. She gets carried
away again with,' The training industry is where to be; where the
action is, and where successful people migrate'. Oh yeah! But there's
an excellent page about not trying to see everything in terms of
training. She's right here, we should be participating, not by simply
delivering courses, but being involved in product, process and procedural
improvement. Promised clients insights and improvements, rather
than just classes. She also has a pop at the LMS vendors, 'I can't
tell you how many people I have talked to who purchased an LMS and
have no idea how to make it work for them'.
The New Social Contract by Murray Christensen
Rant: No mention of Rousseau here. It's as if all
thought had emerged after 1775 in the US so the piece reads like
US propaganda. A well worn path comparing the old with the new world
of change, uncertainty, and self-reliance. He's right but nothing
really new here in terms of insights.
Are you a Vendor or a Partner? By Scott Sutker
Rave: Superb short piece. All vendors and buyers
should read this. I recommend the Partnership Pledge. Well done
Scott. Could have done with more balance or a companion piece from
a vendor. What about those awful RFPs that want everything for nothing,
pitching only to find that project doesn't exist, stealing vendor
employees, specification changes but no budget changes, contradictory
changes, ambiguous technical specifications - end of rant.
We Thought We could, We think We Can and Lessons
Along the Way by Larry Israelite
Rant: Didn't get this - really a personal
career story. Genuinely puzzling.
Messing with the Primal Forces of Nature: Transforming
Learning by Lance Dublin
Rave: Lance takes the brief seriously
and starts every paragraph with 'I'm mad as hell and won't take
this anymore', the quote from the film Network. I like this as it
really is a series of rants. Could have done with some constructive
solutions but the rants were enough.
The Red Pill or the Blue Pill: by Mark Oehlert
Rave: "We talk about e-learning but
what we are selling is e-teaching. Producers don't make e-learning.
Producers make product." Great line. Two really good rants in this
paper. The first is a rant against the dangers of ever tightening
copyright and patent law. The second is a wonderful appeal for looser,
playful learning design.
top
People Architecture: A holistic Approach to Building,
Maintaining and Expanding Your Learning Infrastructure by Vicki
Cerda
Rant: Oh no - the HR masterplan. If
only people would fall into line, the world would be a great place.
'Architecting people' is her big concept - uuurrrrgggghhhh!
Grassroots Corporate e-Learning Collaboration Works!
By Carol J, Friday
Rant: Saudi Aramco's efforts at arranging
internal conferences. Didn't really see the point in this.
Learning in an On-Demand World by Nancy DeViney
Rant: Nancy is great on the evolving
workforce and flexible careers but Nancy herself is an old-school
IBM lifer. She's always on message - even in her dreams! It's the
usual IBM 4-teir model, on-demand learning stuff. If you've seen
the presentation, fast forward
A Journey of e-Learning Efforts by David Barton
Reflection: E-learning at Michelin.
Like the Michelin Man, he sounded a little weary, a bit bloated
but has a certain charm I liked his list of do's and don'ts.
Going Global at Macdonald's with e-Learning by
Mike Hendon
Rant: Had the cheek to rave about 'quality
products' and the seven Hamburger Universities. How can these guys
keep a straight face? Read it as satire - it works. To be fair the
stuff on localisation with multiple versions of English and Spanish
was enlightening.
Simulation at the Secret Service by Paul Nenninger
Rave: Wonderful piece on the value of
simulations, with some extra spice as we're talking 'spies' here.
Great start telling us how he'd been simulating plane crashes into
the White House since 1998. This guy understands the power of simulations;
opportunities for repeated practice, moments of discovery, learning
from failure, self-critique, cost-savings, creating the impossible
and the expansion of possibilities. 'They represent one of the very
best ways to train.' Right on the button!
It's in the Air: The Move to m-Learning by Judy
Brown
Reflection: Some good data and lots
of examples make this a good introduction to mobile learning.
Learning in the Bright Air: The Learning Technology
Trends of 2015 by Sam Adkins
Refection: Actually better on the past
than the future. Brings up the excellent work by Bloom showing the
efficacy of different learning techniques. The average tutored student's
achievement is better than 98% of classroom students. However, less
convincing on the future. I wasn't convinced by the agents and artificial
intelligence. Been there before.
Into the Future of meLearning: Every One Learning….Imagine
if the impossible isn't! by Wayne Hodgins
Rant: Starts with ten solid pages of
meaningless nothingness as Wayne spills out his plans to change
the world through learning. Then the compulsory 'Lego-brick' analogy
- deeply flawed. If you've seen Wayne speak, at breakneck speed,
you'll know what his prose is like.
A rant, rave or reflection needs to be short and some
of the entries were way too long and needed serious editing. This
would have left more room for more people to rant, rave and reflect.
In fact the quality was, generally, inversely proportional to the
length.
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