E P I C   T H I N K I N G

Issue 28: March 2004

This month:
1. New white paper: Interactive TV and e-learning
2. Show report: Elearninternational Edinburgh
3. Book review: Integrated e-learning
4. News: E-learning outperforms NASDAQ, 3 blind phreaks, training SAS-style

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WHITE PAPERS

 1. Does Interactive TV flatter to deceive? Interactive television is much-hyped as a medium for the delivery of learning, but does it really have what it takes?

The allure is obvious. It’s in every home. TV is a familiar and well loved piece of technology, without the inbuilt limits to its use felt to operate in the case of computers (i.e.literacy, class, age, bank balance). Surely iTV can spread learning to those difficult-to-reach audiences the government is so keen to upskill?

But does interactive television flatter to deceive? A realistic assessment of the barriers, psychological and physical, that it faces, can make the chances of its becoming a major delivery channel for learning in the near future look decidely slim.

Added to which, the history of interactive television is littered with spectacular failures: billions have been spent on failed trials and initiatives. So does iTV really have the potential for learning that many people believe it does?

This new white paper from Epic's Donald Clark, takes a critical look at iTV and e-learning, posing (and answering) the following questions:

• What is interactive television?
• What is the history of interactive television?
• What problems does interactive television have in learning?
• What potential does interactive television have for learning?

To get your free copies contact us

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SHOW REPORT

2. Elearninternational Edinburgh, February 2004

Vive la difference!

‘I had a feeling that this would be a conference with a difference and so it proved. I particularly enjoyed the opening session that took a philosophical view of e-learning, before we descended into practical issues. This was refreshing. Secondly, the scenario planning approach. This gave the conference some unity of purpose. Thirdly, real kids contributing to conference: this was a revelation. They were fabulous..!’

Donald Clark visits (and speaks at) an event that successfully rings the changes on that tired old conference format.

Read the report 

Selected highlights:

Philosophy of e-learning
A philosophical riposte
Scenario driven sessions
Best of the rest
Real kids contributing to conference shock!
The panel

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BOOK REVIEWS

  3. Integrated e-learning: Implications for Pedagogy, Technology and Organisation RoutledgeFalmer September 2003

Editors: Wim Jochems, Jeroen Van Merrienboer, Rob Koper

Review by Dr Matthew Fox, Director of Learning Solutions, Epic.

‘When it comes to e-learning, the higher education sector has followed an altogether different trail from that taken by the training community - unsurprisingly, perhaps, as HE is starting from a very different place. But when we turn to distance education, the journey looks different again...

‘Pioneers of e-learning, with years of experience in dealing with complex subject matter and distributing it to diverse and scattered audiences, distance education specialists have been trailblazers in online education...

’ Dr Matt Fox, Director of Learning Solutions at Epic, reviews this offering from Holland’s answer to the Open University, and finds it well constructed and pragmatically-focused - if a little parochial...

Read review

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NEWS

  4a. E-learning stocks outperform NASDAQ

Cheering signs of buoyancy in the e-learning market have been seen recently. The Brandon-Hall stock ticker, which charts the ups and downs of a basket of e-learning share prices, shows an upturn since the beginning of the year of (at time of writing) over 13%. Furthermore, e-learning shares are outperforming the NASDAQ, itself currently undergoing something of a revival since the dog days of the early noughties.
Brandon-hall stock ticker

 4b. Three Blind Phreaks

Here’s one story that puts a new spin on the accessibility debate.

Accessible technologies, as we are always saying, help users to help themselves. Three vision-impaired brothers featured on Wired News recently certainly knew how to use technology to help themselves – helping themselves to over $2 million of other people’s money with an astonishing set of technology-related aptitudes that give real meaning to the much derided term ‘differently-abled’.

How the phone-phreaking Badir brothers ran rings around Israel's telcos for six scam-filled years. Read article

 4c. And finally While we’re overturning stereotypes…

Readers who think of programmers as hollow-chested geeks with bottle-bottom glasses who spend their lives at dinner parties talking about bacteria should tune into the next series of ‘SAS: are you tough enough’, to be screened by the BBC later in the year.

There they will see Ishmael Burdeau, Principal Developer at Epic, who is one of 24 roughing it in harsh conditions for three weeks in Norway, undergoing SAS training designed to test their mentally toughness and physical strength.

Mens sana in corpore sano…

 Other news this month:

Epic Induction programme gives control to NHS staff
Epic researches accessibility for CIPD
e-learning for free! Accounting Web reviews Deloitte IAS Plus

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EPIC SPEAKS

20-22 April
HRD 2004
Olympia, London Clark, Epic, will take part in 'The Big E-bate' Epic exhibits – Stand 122

22 April
ITEC
Excel, London
Donald Clark, Epic, will speak on Blended Learning and Knowledge Management

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