Friday
Dec311999
111 - TeckChek: Vendor Independent Proficiency Tests & AccessAmerica: Technology for Reinventing Government
December 31, 1999
1. TeckChek: Vendor Independent Proficiency Tests: Take a look at the new
offerings from TeckChek, a vendor independent supplier of proficiency and
skills testing in the IT field. TechCheck is a Knowledge Universe company
that has over 100 different tests focused on the key competencies that IT
professionals need to perform in a changing world. What is unique about
their approach is the format of a test question, that drills down to see how
deeply an employee or candidate understands a concept, not just if they pass
or fail an item. They have web delivered scoring of the exams with a depth
of skill analysis.
We were also impressed with their ability to report results across a team.
You can view where the skill strength or skills gaps are for an entire team,
targeting the learning investments accordingly. The MASIE Center believes
that the TEAM as a unit of learning is at the core of new models of training
investments. You can check out the TeckChek site and view a sample test at
their site: http://www.teckchek.com
2. Global Broadcast: Learnings from a Busy Internet: We had over 20,000
people participating in our TechLearn LIVE internet and satellite broadcast
on March 17th. For the first time, an enormous number of people views (or
tried to view) the broadcast using their web browser.
We had some awesome results and failures during the widespread access to
this program. A good number of people were able to view the 2 hour
broadcast on their browsers with no problems. Some had a few glitches
along the way. Others were caught in net clog and it were unable to plug
in. Ironically, there was plenty of bandwidth at the broadcast side, which
was handled by Real Networks. But, the net is not fully ready for 100%
reliable video. Some ISP's clogged, one company had 40 people attempting to
view the broadcast at once and their server took a vacation. And, there was
a great deal of other net activity that competed for packet movement,
including the trailer for Star Wars.
Our learning....it keeps getting better but we are still working with an
emerging technology. The folks that used the more expensive satellite
reception had no problem and that worked for 15,000 or more people. For
anyone wanting to view the broadcast, we now have an archived version
available at http://www.masie.com/live/ You should be able to view this
now.
3. AccessAmerica: Technology for Reinventing Government: Vice President
Gore recently today a new online magazine featuring stories about a rapidly
growing electronic government. The new site, Access America Online Magazine,
is found at http://www.accessamerica.gov.
"I am proud of how federal workers are using information technology to put
American citizens in immediate touch with their government and its
services," Vice President Gore said. "Information technology enables us to
rethink and reinvent the way government works."
4. Another Voice on Verbalization: The notes about the topic of
verbalization's role in learning continue. Here is a comment from Lian
Bleckmann from Ottawa, Canada:
"I found that "talking in my head" helped considerably in validating not
just what I had learned, but THAT I had learned it. Because I did not
always have learning buddies with whom I could share discussions, I
would play both sides of a discussion through in my head, just to force
some new ideas. Often I resorted to discussions with my husband, even
though he was not following the program. He has been an adult learner
and was often quite capable of adding value to our discussions. So
yes....for me, .verbalization is important, both in shared learning
situations and in situations where you are learning alone."
5. Learning Decision '99 Question: We have had a number of TechLearn Trends
readers ask about the appropriate person to send to our upcoming Learning
Decisions '99 event in Las Vegas from May 12 to 14th. The simple answer is
the key learning leaders in your organization that are developing training
approaches for the future. We have accepted applications from Chief
Learning Officers, Training Managers and other key leaders in the
organization. We have rejected applications from trainers without
management roles, vendors/suppliers and individuals only focused on external
training. For complete information and an application, please go to
http://www.masie.com/decisions/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Your Calendar:
- Learning Decisions '99 - Las Vegas, NV - May 12 - 14, 1999
- TechLearn '99 - Orlando, FL - Oct 31 to Nov 3, 1999
Complete Information: http://www.masie.com
offerings from TeckChek, a vendor independent supplier of proficiency and
skills testing in the IT field. TechCheck is a Knowledge Universe company
that has over 100 different tests focused on the key competencies that IT
professionals need to perform in a changing world. What is unique about
their approach is the format of a test question, that drills down to see how
deeply an employee or candidate understands a concept, not just if they pass
or fail an item. They have web delivered scoring of the exams with a depth
of skill analysis.
We were also impressed with their ability to report results across a team.
You can view where the skill strength or skills gaps are for an entire team,
targeting the learning investments accordingly. The MASIE Center believes
that the TEAM as a unit of learning is at the core of new models of training
investments. You can check out the TeckChek site and view a sample test at
their site: http://www.teckchek.com
2. Global Broadcast: Learnings from a Busy Internet: We had over 20,000
people participating in our TechLearn LIVE internet and satellite broadcast
on March 17th. For the first time, an enormous number of people views (or
tried to view) the broadcast using their web browser.
We had some awesome results and failures during the widespread access to
this program. A good number of people were able to view the 2 hour
broadcast on their browsers with no problems. Some had a few glitches
along the way. Others were caught in net clog and it were unable to plug
in. Ironically, there was plenty of bandwidth at the broadcast side, which
was handled by Real Networks. But, the net is not fully ready for 100%
reliable video. Some ISP's clogged, one company had 40 people attempting to
view the broadcast at once and their server took a vacation. And, there was
a great deal of other net activity that competed for packet movement,
including the trailer for Star Wars.
Our learning....it keeps getting better but we are still working with an
emerging technology. The folks that used the more expensive satellite
reception had no problem and that worked for 15,000 or more people. For
anyone wanting to view the broadcast, we now have an archived version
available at http://www.masie.com/live/ You should be able to view this
now.
3. AccessAmerica: Technology for Reinventing Government: Vice President
Gore recently today a new online magazine featuring stories about a rapidly
growing electronic government. The new site, Access America Online Magazine,
is found at http://www.accessamerica.gov.
"I am proud of how federal workers are using information technology to put
American citizens in immediate touch with their government and its
services," Vice President Gore said. "Information technology enables us to
rethink and reinvent the way government works."
4. Another Voice on Verbalization: The notes about the topic of
verbalization's role in learning continue. Here is a comment from Lian
Bleckmann from Ottawa, Canada:
"I found that "talking in my head" helped considerably in validating not
just what I had learned, but THAT I had learned it. Because I did not
always have learning buddies with whom I could share discussions, I
would play both sides of a discussion through in my head, just to force
some new ideas. Often I resorted to discussions with my husband, even
though he was not following the program. He has been an adult learner
and was often quite capable of adding value to our discussions. So
yes....for me, .verbalization is important, both in shared learning
situations and in situations where you are learning alone."
5. Learning Decision '99 Question: We have had a number of TechLearn Trends
readers ask about the appropriate person to send to our upcoming Learning
Decisions '99 event in Las Vegas from May 12 to 14th. The simple answer is
the key learning leaders in your organization that are developing training
approaches for the future. We have accepted applications from Chief
Learning Officers, Training Managers and other key leaders in the
organization. We have rejected applications from trainers without
management roles, vendors/suppliers and individuals only focused on external
training. For complete information and an application, please go to
http://www.masie.com/decisions/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Your Calendar:
- Learning Decisions '99 - Las Vegas, NV - May 12 - 14, 1999
- TechLearn '99 - Orlando, FL - Oct 31 to Nov 3, 1999
Complete Information: http://www.masie.com
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