e-poche.net

Last week I flew down to Singapore to give a talk on P2P eLearning at the iX 2006 Conference. Unfortunately, I missed most of the other speakers as my time was limited due to other work commitments, but from what I experienced, it was a well organized and highly attended event. It was also held at a fantastic venue - the luxurious Raffles City Convention Center, designed by I.M. Pei. Also, the conference organizers were very friendly and accomodating - I cannot thank them enough for how well they treated me.

Not having any previous experience speaking to the corporate sector, I didn’t quite know what to expect. After giving a brief overview on the origins of the term ‘P2P’ and explaining the difference between P2P environments, approaches, and tools, I proceeded to show three examples of P2P e-learning in action, all of which I happen to be involved. The first was an example a single teacher trying to implement P2P e-learning in a traditional institutional setting (my Internet English class at Kyoto Sangyo University); the second was an example of an accredited institution trying to embrace P2P e-learning as part of their new e-portfolio initiative (Friends World Program), while the third represented the collaborative efforts of teachers from different locations to facilitate P2P e-learning on the open Web (Dekita.org). My intent was that audience members could see parallels between what I was describing and what they were doing in their own organizations.

Did they? Hard to say. I got a lot of blank stares initially, but then questions started coming in, especially once the panel discussions started. What was most educational for me was listening to more experienced speakers and audience members talk about issues and new initiatives in the field of corporate e-learning. Especially interesting was hearing Dr. Brandon Hall field questions and listening to Eric Rogers - senior manager of E-enablement at Standard Chartered - share his adventures with running an e-learning program for 35,000 employees.

In the end, I gathered that when it comes to new technologies and ideas, what really matters is the return on investment: is it going to be profitable and/or lead to an increase in productivity. I suppose it is the same in education, but I get a different feeling when talking to academics about these issues. There isn’t the same sense of competitiveness and urgency. I also learned that I know almost nothing about this field of corporate e-learning, which is exciting in a way, for it feeds my desire to learn more. I hope to keep a closer eye on what happens in the corporate arena, for there seem to be so many bright people working on challenging and innovative projects.