Epic Think Tank
Blended - or Blanded?
 It's
easy to be cynical about buzzwords like 'blended learning'. Overnight,
they appear on everybody's lips (and exhibition stands) only to
vanish as quickly with the changing whims of fashion and the market.
By the standards of the genre, however, 'Blended Learning' has shown
remarkable staying power. As such, it must have something to tell
us about the industry's collective state of mind.
At the heart of the 'blended'
issue is the question of how e-learning, the 'new kid on the
block', is going to find its place in the wider scheme of
things. There has been no Year Zero in organisational learning
- much as certain technology vendors might have wished it
otherwise. The training departments were not closed down.
Like the mechanised kid in Stephen Speilberg's AI, e-learning
has to learn how to get along with the strange and often perverse
ways of human beings.
We chose a key date in the HR
calendar, the opening day of the CIPD Annual Conference and
Exhibition at Harrogate, to mount an Epic Think Tank which
would address the crucial issue of blended learning. Leading
decision makers from the public and private sector (including
e-learning supremos from three major government departments)
gathered, Betty's carrier bags in hand, to bend their thoughts
to the following questions:
- Blended learning - another name for
what we've been doing already? Or a real step forward?
- What works and what doesn't? How much
'e-' should you have in your learning?
Read a full report of the
discussion
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