e-Clippings (Learning As Art)

"IBM invests in business partners' training" (CNET News)

Training as a competitive advantage....

"IBM, which expects to unveil better-than-expected quarterly figures, has announced it will spend some of its cash on incentives to encourage some of its largest partners to invest more in training and other areas. On Wednesday, the company introduced a scheme to help its business partners who are cooperating on its New Enterprise Data Center strategy. The scheme involves incentives for IBM partners to improve their knowledge in three specific areas: virtualization and consolidation; energy efficiency; and business resiliency."

Imagine...using your own internal money to train your customers to use your systems and push technology forward...

"Using the Company as the Classroom" (Business Week)

(Story Link)

"In 2006 alone, U.S. organizations spent an estimated $129 billion on employee learning, according to the American Society for Training and Development. Despite this investment, the reality is that training and coursework account for only a small percentage—around 10%, according to the CCL studies—of the knowledge that managers and executives need in order to develop critical skills."

"New JKO Portal to Offer Joint Online Training" (Defense Link News)

Now I was a very small part of this large and talented team but it is nice to occasionally be able to share with folks the end result of what I have been working on for several months (although none of you can get to the military side unless you have AKO accounts) but anyway...you can see the new public side to the whole serious games discussion (and hopefully participate in it) here.

New JKO Portal to Offer Joint Online Training

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2007 – A new system unveiled today is designed to better prepare servicemembers to operate with other services, government agencies, foreign militaries and non-governmental organizations while reducing the time they spend away from home or their units for military classes.

David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, joined Air Force Gen. Lance L. Smith, commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, at the general’s headquarters in Suffolk, Va., to officially cut the ribbon on the new Joint Knowledge Online, or JKO, enterprise portal system.

The system will go live worldwide April 30 to deliver coursework and learning tools for people involved in integrated, joint operations, Smith told reporters during a teleconference following the ceremony.

Chu called JKO a major step in the Defense Department’s training transformation effort to improve how it prepares its people for their missions around the world. It recognizes that operations now and in the future will be not just joint, but also integrated, meaning they include elements of other U.S. government agencies, foreign militaries and non-governmental organizations, he said.

“For our forces to be effective in that world, they have to prepare with a joint perspective from the start,” he said.

JKO’s distance-learning classes will give users a chance to learn or brush up on skills they need to operate in a challenging and constantly changing environment, Chu said.

"Americans and Chinese Differ in Their World View--Literally" (Scientific American Story)

This story reports that a recent University of Michigan study found that "previously observed cultural differences in judgment and memory between East Asians and North Americans derive from differences in what they actually see." The net result being the finding that people from different cultures 'read' pictures differently. Great. Cool. Glad we settled that long-time mystery.

The interesting question it does beg though is our current thinking on issues such as localization of training and learning content. Are we going far enough? If people from different cultures read something as simple as a picture differently, is our content being altered at a sufficiently granular level to appreciate that kind of cultural difference? Do we need a more collaborative design structure? One that pushes certain elements of design out from the center and lets them be done close to the cultural heart?

Hospitality Industry Competency Model Released (via CLO)

(CLO Story)

“The Blueprint for Trainer Development study identifies the competencies of winners in the hospitality training profession,” said Joleen Flory Lundgren, SPHR, FMP, vice president of human resources and training for Famous Dave’s of America and CHART president. “The model provides a professional development plan for helping trainers grow and provide more value to their organizations.”

COUNCIL OF HOTEL AND RESTAURANT TRAINERS (CHART) Web site
CHART Research (the model is linked from here)