Epic Think Tank

Blended - or Blanded?

Part 3: What the future holds for blended learning

Practitioners are seeking new types of learning, appropriate to the challenges that their organisations face today. The training departments might not have been closed down (although it was suggested that they should be at one point in the discussion!) but the role of trainers is certainly changing.

We are seeing the rise of the training consultant. A new skillset is needed, to support a new type of learner, accessing knowledge and learning in unfamiliar ways. These learners, too, need new skills - foremost among which will be learning how to learn. New delivery methods require a new range of activities from the human elements of the blend: mentoring, coaching, e-tutoring; using both electronic and conventional methods as appropriate.

The emphasis on blended learning is also showing a tendency to dissolve some of the rigid boundaries that used to segregate learning from mainstream business activity. In particular, a theme that comes up frequently when Think Tank delegates look towards the future is the necessity for knowledge management to be integrated with e-learning.

Previous delegates have described various approaches to doing this through learning portals and collaborative learning, however there is a perception that progress towards this ideal is being hampered by the two being in different 'silos' within most organisations - i.e. typically, e-learning is with the HR department, while IT has knowledge management. Progress on this front would do much, our delegates thought, to make for a more dynamic blend of information, collaboration and knowledge.

Here the focus is on what each individual needs to do their job, in the way of information, knowledge and learning; creating an ever wider focus for the blend, and one with a more learner-centred dynamic. In this regard, Gloria Geary's vision of task-based portals, as featured in last month's report from the Online Learning show in Anaheim was mentioned, providing a model of learning centred on bring everything you need to know in your role directly to the desktop.

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Introduction
Background
Part 1 Old wine in new bottles?
Part 2 What works and what doesn't?

Afterword