The Learned Man!

eLearning Jobs - Send in your CV's

Update: Now that India has its first niche eLearning jobs website in the form of eLearningCareers.com, I think I will step back and advise you to visit this website to scope out new jobs in e-Learning.

Forthcoming Reports & Surveys

Coming Soon - The Learned Man! Blog is working on putting out India's first ever "eLearning Salary Survey" and India's first ever "Best eLearning Companies in India to Work For".

Donald Trump & eLearning Projects

Here's a guy who can apply learnings from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "The Apprentice" to eLearning projects. And when he tells you why you should treat your learners like a dog you know this guy is funny!

Trot over to the e-Musings section at The ELearning Guild for more of his whacky eLearning humour! 

The "All New" Learning Circuits Blog

The Learned Man has been included in the team that will author the Learning Circuits Blog under the stewardship of fellow blogger Dave Lee.

This multi-author team includes stalwarts Donald Clark, Ben Watson, Clark Aldrich, Clark Quinn, Stephen Downes, Godfrey Parkin, Jay Cross, Josh Bersin, Jim Schuyler, John Fallon, Judy, KnowledgeStar, Ryann Ellis, Mark, Peter Isackson, Spike, Richard, Scott Wilson, sokap, and Tom

The Learning Circuits Blog was Started in April 2002 by Jay Cross, to provide a forum for discussion of topics raised in Learning Circuits, LCB was one of the first "team blogs" on the Internet. Its all-star team of contributing authors sounds off on the latest issues in the e-learning field.

With the explosion in popularity of blogs in 2004, it was time for LCB to evolve. In January, Jay asked Dave Lee to step forward as Blogmeister for the group.

"The Learning Circuits Blog was one of the first multi-author blogs. I am hoping Dave, Ryann, and the LC Blogging Team evolve this one-way medium into a two-way, collaborative learning environment. Somebody's got to break new ground, and I can't think of a more worthy group to do it." - Jay Cross

Megers & Aquisitions in Pune, India

The momento has been building up, and with eLearning ventures mushrooming all over India in the last 5 years to cater to the boom in demand for off-shore custom courseware development, it was only inevitable that matters reach a boiling point and the usual consolidation within the industry starts to take place. With Indian eLearning companies offering the advantages of cheap off-shore production, it makes good business sense for US companies handling large volumes of work to set up their own captive units or buy out existing small or mid-sized firms to leverage the same advantages.

The Learned Man Blog has learned through a credible source that the Infinity Venture, the investors in a prominent Pune (India) based eLearning company are looking to exit and are actively searching for prospective buyers for their stakeholding in this company.

Maximize Learning, another mid-sized Pune based eLearning company is in the process of being aquired by TechBooks. (TechBooks is a Fairfax, VA  based  company that provides composition and data conversion services to publishers, information aggregators, professional societies, government agencies, universities and major corporations. It's investors include Ticonderoga Capital & Blue Water Capital)

In September of 2003, US-based Lionbridge Technologies acquired Mumbai-based e-Learning company Mentorix Learning Technologies for $ 23 Million.

Paris Hilton style eLearning

Great post by Scott Surley:

"Paris Hilton style Technology enhanced Learning

Technology in the service or education and learning. How about Technology in the service of people consuming the service of education and learning. I don't imagine that Paris Hilton could care less about expanding her mind through education, and she is smart enough to already have found her niche in life, however how do we service and leverage the millions of people who look up to her and use her as a role model (even though coolness probably prevents them from admitting it).

If I had to pick one piece of technology which actually reaches the societal group the Paris Hilton personifies it would be the cell phone. The technology which keeps kids in their circle of friends enables them to communicate and document their friends, via mobile phone service, SMS and address books.

Yet the integration of a technology as simple as SMS is absent from the Education Platforms. This is astounding considering the penetration of the technology and ubiquity of the technology. Almost every Higher Education student has one, and many secondary teenage students, and it is with them more than their text books.

Here is a challenge to LMS vendors. SMS students if they haven't submitted their assignments. SMS them course announcements from instructors instead of making them login. Bring the content them to them - Push technology not Pull. Provide a facility to send them simple SMS pop quizzes for extra marks just to keep them interested and mentally aware that they are actually studying.

The downside is that even as I write this I can hear the money piling up in the pockets of the telecommunications providers, but that is just another challenge to overcome.

The main point is to adopt and embrace the technology that people want to and do use, rather than try to force them to use something else. ..."

Scott, the Paris Hilton in the title got me! I completely agree with this. As a student of an Executive Masters in Business Administration which is a blended learning course, I would be much happier, were all announcements and submission deadlines were to be broadcast to me via SMS on a regular basis. Hey if my bank can do it, so can my school! - TLM