Today I visited the 8th Dutch E-Learning Conference in Nieuwegein. During this event chaired by Harm Weistra the fields of education and training merge to discuss learning innovations. It was good to see that interest in the field of e-learning is growing again with a doubling of the audience compared to the previous year.

The event started with a brief introduction by Harm Weistra. He stated that e-learning is still developing rapidly and that ‘technology-hopping’ is an inherent risk to the field. New technologies are embraced, whilst the older aren’t utilized up to their potential yet. He also addressed the fact that besides the formal learning technologies new unofficial technologies are used by learners (e.g. MSN).  Professor Robert-Jan Simons continued with a presentation on the new roles for teachers. He stated that despite the burst of the Internet bubble in 2002, the revolution continued. ICT has changed the ways students communicate with peers and teachers (at least the technology savvy ones). New technologies have also resulted in new models for learning like the Virtual Action Learning concept by Baeten.

After this view from the educational side, Stefaan van Hooijdonk (Head of Agfa Academy with a history at Nokia) presented a corporate case in e-learning. Agfa has been through a phased process of implementing e-learning: #1 e-administration (LMS), #2 e-content (WBT), #3 e-collaboration. Interesting is the fact that the Academy is part of the marketing department and is driving business. This is why there is enough funding to develop e-learning. Stefaan stated that at Nokia the dealers on average looked at e-content for 3 minutes. At Agfa they produced 8-12 minute clips as e-knowledge.

Professor Wim Veen showed us his Homo Zappiens in his dynamic presentation. For the Homo Zappiens virtual is real and the Net is like Oxygen. They learn via online games, LAN parties, Second Life’s and they respond quickly to visual responses. Self-steering is key for them in contract with the educational world of dictating curricula and teachers. They want to aggregate their knowledge themselves via online resources and their social networks.

Good fun in the afternoon was the session by trendwatcher Bakas focusing on trends like tribalisation, learning for a new era, new coalitions, seniors economy and the new labour market. Entertaining, but not too strong in his learning story. Do we need trendwachers anyway in an Era where all trends are instantly spread via the web?

Just like the Learning Technologies 2007 enough interest in podcasting, web 2.0, social networking et cetera. Some more mature cases and more in depth discussion would have been interesting. What also surprises me in the e-learning events is the fact that all of them fail to practice what they preach (we are still sitting down to listen).

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