As a consequence of my past few days in Colombia and Denmark, I’ve seen again that there are some benefits to having a strong culture. In Colombia, the countryside was quite clean. There’s a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and they self-describe as being resourceful. I can believe it! They find a way to get things done. They also self-describe as tough negotiators. I see some real benefits to their ‘can do’ attitude in turning around some of the perceptions they’re quite aware of.

In Denmark, on the other hand, I see a different factor that I very much admire. They seem committed to ‘doing it right’. By and large not only is the place clean, but it’s efficient. There seems to be very little waste, people follow the traffic rules, everything is just so. And they’re not too rushed. They want to enjoy life. I think there’s a strong concern to make sure that everyone’s getting a fair opportunity to be taken care of, and they do what so many countries do pretty well: providing national health care. Of course, their government is pushing more privatization, as the US is going the other way. Sorry, health care is my personal hot button and major impediment to financial peace of mind (400% increase in 4.5 years!). I’ve lived in Australia where they had national health care and it worked. It may not be perfect, but everyone was covered to some extent, unlike the situation people can be in in the US.

Let me add that it was delightful to spend time with Lisa Gjedde and Helle Meldgaard again; we had a great conversation about games and mobile learning over dinner with their partner-in-crime Robin after I talked about those two things in a seminar. They’re doing some very interesting stuff with it. I found some colleagues from the Narrative in Interactive Learning Environment conference (NILE), including Lisa, Paul Brna, and Judy Robertson are writing a book on narrative in learning, and writing it as a narrative. I look forward to seeing it.

I also found out about an initiative going beyond what I knew the iPod can do, having branching available through hot links on notes. I’ll point you to David Seume’s Video iPod project and you can look up his blog as well. Not all the bugs are out, but it opens up some really interesting new opportunities.

I really enjoy the way the culture in academia is so oriented towards sharing in many ways. So, having brought the conversation full circle, I’ll stop here!

Phew, 4 conferences in three weeks! First DevLearn, then Colombia’s eLearning 07, and now the Danish Research Network’s conference, with a quick presentation over to George Siemen’s Corporate Learning (CLTI) conference via Elluminate. Some mixed thoughts about what’s happened…

I’ll give my first presentation here in Denmark in a couple of hours. I’m doing like I did in Abu Dhabi and on ITFORUM, trying to give a ‘big picture’ talk using wisdom as guidance for looking at what we do, though there’s a followup session where I delve into associated models and examples. Tomorrow I’m talking a couple of hours on game and mobile design. At DevLearn I talked about the roles of elearning tools, mobile learning, and the emotional component of elearning. In Colombia it was the corporate strategy, as well as my mobile and game design workshops. For CLTI, again it was the corporate elearning strategy.

Denmark’s lovely, by the way. OK, it’s overcast and cold, but the people are warm, and the conference center is absolutely nice. The rooms are simple (single bed) but well appointed, though with quirky internet. However, the center has great internet connection, very good food, and is well outfitted with lots of space for talking, too. I found out that English is almost an official second language here (if you immigrate, if you don’t speak good enough Danish, English is an acceptable second!), and I have no worries about talking to anyone. Thanks to Helle for her help here.

Whereas in Colombia, the odds were I couldn’t talk to anyone unless I had one of my translators along. Of course, they didn’t recommend going anywhere alone anyway! Except the mall connected to the hotel, where I spent an hour madly searching for some things to take home to the family before it closed. Colombia had good food too, but the workshops at Sena were somewhat disorganized. The conference center was nice, but the government building for the workshops had some problems.

We started late, the technology didn’t work (we even had a power outage), and the room was open onto a 10 story stairwell for some poor acoustics. Anyone talking even a bit was heard everywhere! They kept changing the plan and times for things, so it was just make it up as you go along. For the mobile workshop, I didn’t end up doing too much activity (200 people is a bit much for a workshop), but the game design workshop came off fairly well (they dropped it to 40, and it was down to 12 at the end because people had to go catch their flights home!). The simultaneous translation wasn’t as much of a barrier as I feared, though it got difficult to deal with questions. I really owe a debt of thanks to Nikolaos who made things go as smoothly as they did (and he had no power over the workshop arrangements)

And, in all fairness, I saw ways to improve the mobile workshop as it’s a bit conceptual and could use more hands-on. No worries, that I can do. And I’m always tweaking things to go better anyway.

I’m still waiting for my learning thoughts to coalesce, but I really do feel there’s a movement towards strategy out there. Hopefully!

I’ve seen that my colleagues have been running their blogs through a ‘readability‘ test. I’m not sure how reasonable it is, but I took a punt and:

I’m pleased that it’s readable (I wouldn’t want otherwise), but I admit I’ve always thought that I’m too conceptual, so I’m a little put out! ;).

On the other hand, the code they ‘recommend’ has as an alternate a ‘cash advance’ site(?!?). Given that Cammy Bean’s is ‘genius’ level, and Jay Cross’ is ‘jr. high school’, maybe it’s random? I respect both, but I don’t find that big a difference between their outputs. Caveat emptor.

Without forewarning, they let us know that we would be interviewed for Colombian TV. Well, for a special program, not mainstream news or anything. Lance Dublin, who spoke today, was in a suit. Eric Parks managed to pull out a tie from his stuff (“never without one”). I was in a leather vest and a shirt. Dario Montoya, the Director General of SENA (the national body sponsoring the conference) was generous enough to take off his coat when he talked with me.

We were primed with some questions, but Dr. Montoya took the initiative to ask a couple of other questions (he’s very knowledgeable, as you might imagine). He started off asking about trends in games and simulations, and I replied that they were hitting the mainstream, but managed to sneak in my point about how they don’t need to cost millions of dollars.

He followed up asking about whether we needed to consider a supportive environment for learning, and I opined about considering the emotional side of elearning, and moved to the notion of not expecting self-learning capability, but nurturing it.

He proceeded to challenge me about the importance of cognitive science for organizations, and I talked about how we need to design how people really perform, and really learn, not how engineers or designers believe we should. He changed topic, saying several years ago he’d have thought it would be crazy to put courses on a phone. I replied that it is crazy (though Merrill Lynch found higher success with executives for compliance on a Blackberry, but it was likely more about lack of interruptions), that mobile learning is about extending the learning experience, not replacing it, and that performance support was the real area.

It was an interesting experience. I don’t mind extemporizing, though it’s a wee bit anxiety-inducing. It’ll be on TV on Sunday morning in Colombia (translated to Spanish). Wonder how many will see it? Well, at least you can read it.

I’m in Medellin for Sena’s eLearning 07 conference.   I got in late last nite, and have had half a day here so far.   Great wireless at the conference center.   Slower at the hotel.   The people are friendly and handsome, and they’re taking good care of us.   Lance Dublin started us off this morning, and his previous 2 times talking have clearly paid off as he knew how to cope with simultaneous translation and with making jokes work across cultures.   Hope my session goes half so well tomorrow.

The place reminds me a bit of Taipei, what with green hills, and lots of motorcycles. Not as hot, since it’s quite high, though I expect near the coast here it could be a wee bit like a sauna.   Not as much smoking, but you notice it since it’s not confined.

I’ve already had a local dish for breakfast, Catal-something, which was beans, rice, and some meat and supposedly egg.   Yummy.   A snack for mid-morning (elevenses) was a roll filled with ham in a sauce.   Lunch soon.   Can you tell I’m a bit of a foodie?

Sena, the sponsoring government agency is doing many cool things both with and without technology.   The obvious include English language classes online, and   with internet being distributed out to the far reaches of the country with busses.   Other projects include   police not only being sent around to be police, but also doing service projects, and other things essentially technology independent but making great strides in further the agenda of the country.

I hope to have more, hopefully when I’ve had more rest!

It’s been a mad week (not going to change for a couple of weeks, yikes), what with presentations and breakfast bytes and events and…   It was a great conference (people are even raving about the food)!   Some quick thoughts while I spend time with family before my upcoming 1.5 weeks away:

There was a consistent theme in the keynotes, ones I naturally resonate with: creativity, change, and innovation.   Sir Ken Robinson opened with a witty conversation on creativity and how we all need to cultivate it.   It’s one of the elements in my notion of what a future curriculum needs to include. Paul Saffo talked about the changes that are occurring (and really suggested elearning is poised to be a real factor).   Finally,   Frans Johannsen talked about generating innovation from diversity.

Mobile is where games were 2 years ago, just at the top of the hill and gaining momentum for that downhill roll.   The pre-conference symposium was great fun, listening to David Metcalf, Judy Brown, and Ellen Wagner showing great examples, talking about great principles, etc (and Steve Wexler and Brent Schenkler in there for the research).   The audience really pitched in asking tough questions, coming up with great ideas, and really getting into it.   While I underestimated the timing on my mobile design exercise, it’s one I think I can refine and have great fun with in the future.

Games are really steaming along.   People are getting that learning has to have engagement, contextualization, be focused on meaningful change, etc.   My session on the emotional side of elearning went well, the Immersive Learning Simulation challenge organized by Mark Oehlert was a hoot, with great stuff by Brent Smith and Anne Derryberry.   The goal was to design a game to help convicts survive on the streets and not return to prison.   It was really interesting to see how what we presented all mutually reinforced.   It’d be a great team!   More will be happening on this, such as Clive Shepherd taking a shot at it on Monday supposedly.   When I get a moment, I’ll post my thoughts and approach.   We’re hoping others will take a shot and start a discussion. Not necessarily on the particular topic, but using that as a way to catalyze discussion about how to design and implement serious games, er, ILS.

My session on elearning tools went really well, I thought, generating discussion about what purposes the tools serve.   This despite the fact that the handouts were missing some graphics (grr), which I didn’t know about ’til afterward.   People were so into it that they asked if there were a way to continue.   I”ll be talking to the Guild about doing that.

There was a blogger’s bash Wed night, and Jay Cross invited some Knowledge Management bloggers from the KM World conference going on down the block.   Had a very interesting conversation with Dave Snowden who has some rather revolutionary ideas that resonate, but I’ve got to digest them a bit more.   Short version: all our categorization is useless, live in the moment ad hoc.

There may be more, but I’ve off to kid’s soccer tournaments, etc.