Friday
Dec311999
129 - Special Report from London, England - CBT Systems Conference
December 31, 1999
1. E-mail Worm is Terrorism! By now, the world has learned and experienced
the impact of the latest virus, Worm.ExploreZip. Even as I was writing a
warning about it on Friday, we received three copies of the virus,
pretending to be from colleagues at major technology companies. The virus
found my name in their address list and replicated the lethal .exe file and
sent it along to my inbox. Luckily, we were on the lookout and caught and
deleted it.
This latest virus really is a form of terrorism. Think about how you would
feel if the local newspaper reported that a group of people were breaking
into corporate headquarters at night, deleting files and stealing the keys
to other corporate locations so that they could do the same. It is
terrorism in the digital age. Several of my colleagues working in military
organizations around the world have reported that they are handling this
virus/worm as an incident of terrorism. Let's not make the mistake of
characterizing it as a prank or game. It is serious and risky. I would
love to hear from TechLearn Trends readers with a short report on how your
organizations are handling the virus/worm: emasie@masie.com
2. Lesson from CBT Implementation: Marketing Internally the Mega-Key.
This morning I presented the keynote speech at the European CBT Systems
Conference in London. The other keynoter was Chris Murray, Global Head of
Technology Education for Warburg Dillon Read, a major investment banking
company. Chris outlined the role that marketing has played in their
dramatic deployment of CBT courses throughout the world. He has mounted a
major marketing and public relations effort to get the story about the power
of CBT courses in front of the tens of thousands of users in their
international company. He made active use of emails, posters, intranet
marketing and open houses to change the image and awareness levels about
their CBT Systems course licenses. He even runs focus groups to measure
the attitudinal aspects of implementing a technology approach to learning.
Chris has moved towards using CBT as the default approach to foundation
level skills, with classroom expenditures targeted at advanced learning.
We can't just implement an on-line learning approach and hope "they" come.
Marketing must be an integral and continuous core component of
implementation!
3. Barnes & Noble On-Line Bookstore Selling Learning: O'Reilly &
Associates, Digital Education Systems (DigitalEd), and barnesandnoble.com
have signed an agreement for barnesandnoble.com to resell O'Reilly/DigitalEd
web-based courses. As part of the agreement, barnesandnoble.com will be the
exclusive online bookstore to resell the courses. The O'Reilly/DigitalEd
courses, based on O'Reilly's bestselling technical books, provide a
self-paced online learning experience that takes full advantage of the Web's
interactivity. barnesandnoble.com will offer 12 courses in O'Reilly's Web
technology series plus "Introduction to the Palm Pilot." The required books
for all courses will also be available at barnesandnoble.com. Info at
http://www.digitaled.com
4. Training Tip: Teaching Backwards: Trainers, start at the end!
Technical training can be accelerated by reversing elements of the
curriculum. Start at the end. Start with the output of the application
such as a report, order or printout. Then, work backwards through the steps
necessary to create this output. The output makes the theory of the
application real. I used this approach when teaching folks how to use an
accounting system. We created a payroll check (non-negotiable) for each
learner. Then, we went backwards through the steps it took to "cut" the
check. It is easy to slip into a step by step approach without thinking
about the learner's ability to understand where the steps lead.
5. BIG PLANET: IPhone and Network Marketing Applied to Internet Community:
On the way to London, I stopped in Salt Lake City for the Big Planet
Conference. Big Planet is a network marketing company that is focused on
new approaches to thinking about the internet. The core of their new
strategy evolves around the I-Phone, an integrated device that combines a
telephone, modem, screen and keyboard. It has a touch-screen interface
that makes it easy to introduce new users to internet use and e-commerce.
Using network marketing, the Big Planet distributors are building a business
model based on personal selling of both communication services and the
e-commerce that will be conducted on the device. Richard King, the former
Chief Technology Officer of Novell, is the CEO of Big Planet. Network
marketing approaches are new to the internet space and may provide a unique
way to aggregate e-commerce buying potentials. Their web site is
http://www.bigplanet.com
Upcoming MASIE Center Event:
TechLearn '99 (including The 1999 Computer & IT Training Convention and
LEARNING DECISIONS Seminars) - October 31 to November 3, 1999 in Orlando,
Florida. Attendees have the option of booking a unique Behind The Scenes
Tour of Disney or a trip to the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday prior to
TechLearn. There are currently 1,297 attendees registered for TechLearn.
Register on-line at http://www.techlearn.com
the impact of the latest virus, Worm.ExploreZip. Even as I was writing a
warning about it on Friday, we received three copies of the virus,
pretending to be from colleagues at major technology companies. The virus
found my name in their address list and replicated the lethal .exe file and
sent it along to my inbox. Luckily, we were on the lookout and caught and
deleted it.
This latest virus really is a form of terrorism. Think about how you would
feel if the local newspaper reported that a group of people were breaking
into corporate headquarters at night, deleting files and stealing the keys
to other corporate locations so that they could do the same. It is
terrorism in the digital age. Several of my colleagues working in military
organizations around the world have reported that they are handling this
virus/worm as an incident of terrorism. Let's not make the mistake of
characterizing it as a prank or game. It is serious and risky. I would
love to hear from TechLearn Trends readers with a short report on how your
organizations are handling the virus/worm: emasie@masie.com
2. Lesson from CBT Implementation: Marketing Internally the Mega-Key.
This morning I presented the keynote speech at the European CBT Systems
Conference in London. The other keynoter was Chris Murray, Global Head of
Technology Education for Warburg Dillon Read, a major investment banking
company. Chris outlined the role that marketing has played in their
dramatic deployment of CBT courses throughout the world. He has mounted a
major marketing and public relations effort to get the story about the power
of CBT courses in front of the tens of thousands of users in their
international company. He made active use of emails, posters, intranet
marketing and open houses to change the image and awareness levels about
their CBT Systems course licenses. He even runs focus groups to measure
the attitudinal aspects of implementing a technology approach to learning.
Chris has moved towards using CBT as the default approach to foundation
level skills, with classroom expenditures targeted at advanced learning.
We can't just implement an on-line learning approach and hope "they" come.
Marketing must be an integral and continuous core component of
implementation!
3. Barnes & Noble On-Line Bookstore Selling Learning: O'Reilly &
Associates, Digital Education Systems (DigitalEd), and barnesandnoble.com
have signed an agreement for barnesandnoble.com to resell O'Reilly/DigitalEd
web-based courses. As part of the agreement, barnesandnoble.com will be the
exclusive online bookstore to resell the courses. The O'Reilly/DigitalEd
courses, based on O'Reilly's bestselling technical books, provide a
self-paced online learning experience that takes full advantage of the Web's
interactivity. barnesandnoble.com will offer 12 courses in O'Reilly's Web
technology series plus "Introduction to the Palm Pilot." The required books
for all courses will also be available at barnesandnoble.com. Info at
http://www.digitaled.com
4. Training Tip: Teaching Backwards: Trainers, start at the end!
Technical training can be accelerated by reversing elements of the
curriculum. Start at the end. Start with the output of the application
such as a report, order or printout. Then, work backwards through the steps
necessary to create this output. The output makes the theory of the
application real. I used this approach when teaching folks how to use an
accounting system. We created a payroll check (non-negotiable) for each
learner. Then, we went backwards through the steps it took to "cut" the
check. It is easy to slip into a step by step approach without thinking
about the learner's ability to understand where the steps lead.
5. BIG PLANET: IPhone and Network Marketing Applied to Internet Community:
On the way to London, I stopped in Salt Lake City for the Big Planet
Conference. Big Planet is a network marketing company that is focused on
new approaches to thinking about the internet. The core of their new
strategy evolves around the I-Phone, an integrated device that combines a
telephone, modem, screen and keyboard. It has a touch-screen interface
that makes it easy to introduce new users to internet use and e-commerce.
Using network marketing, the Big Planet distributors are building a business
model based on personal selling of both communication services and the
e-commerce that will be conducted on the device. Richard King, the former
Chief Technology Officer of Novell, is the CEO of Big Planet. Network
marketing approaches are new to the internet space and may provide a unique
way to aggregate e-commerce buying potentials. Their web site is
http://www.bigplanet.com
Upcoming MASIE Center Event:
TechLearn '99 (including The 1999 Computer & IT Training Convention and
LEARNING DECISIONS Seminars) - October 31 to November 3, 1999 in Orlando,
Florida. Attendees have the option of booking a unique Behind The Scenes
Tour of Disney or a trip to the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday prior to
TechLearn. There are currently 1,297 attendees registered for TechLearn.
Register on-line at http://www.techlearn.com
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