Thursday
Jun012000
168 - Special Edition from Lisbon, Portugal
June 1, 2000
(Special Edition from Lisbon, Portugal)
e-Learning with an International Flavor - Portugal Style
I saw a very different face for e-Learning yesterday during a visit to
Lisbon, Portugal. The first e-Learning Conference in Portugal was sponsored
by AcademiaGlobal.Com, a new learning portal launched by the Portugal
Telecom (the national telephone company) and Tracy International (a long
standing training and performance company). There were 350 leaders from
around Portugal at this one day event, including the Mayor of Lisbon, CEO's
of major corporations and HR/Training leaders. It was an amazing experience
to hear the phrase e-Learning role off the tongue of the Mayor, as he
articulated the key role that technology enhanced learning would have in
helping Portugal compete in the New Economy. It was striking to see the
head of the national telecom company articulate that LEARNING CONTENT was
critical to the future of the telecommunications industry.
As I gave the opening keynote for this convocation, I was struck by the
"political" content of the conversation. Every speaker from Portugal linked
e-Learning to economic, societal and political agendas. They saw e-Learning
as a national opportunity which would enable them to address these key
issues:
* The ability to provide learning to a broader range of citizens, throughout their lives,
regardless of location.
* The ability to provide strategic training to fill a current or sudden skill gap in the
labor marketplace.
* The ability to provide access to international expertise with a localization of both
language and context.
* The ability to export Subject Matter Expertise from Portugal to the global economy.
* The ability to use e-Learning across the entire Supply Chain, from customers to
suppliers to partners, allowing companies in Portugal to be more agile in competing in
e-Marketplaces.
* The ability to leverage collaborative technology to link learners throughout Portugal
and Portuguese speaking countries.
While there was clearly a commercial venture on the table in the announcement of a new
learning portal, the attendees saw this with great national pride. It was going to be a Portugal
e-Learning mechanism. The television stations were there, the national newspapers and
magazines were there and there was a deep sense of the country taking the next step on the
road to the Internet Economy process. They were going "e-Learning!"
The questions that arose during the breaks were also different from those
that are common at training events in the States. There were very few
technology or tools questions. The focus was almost entirely on how
e-Learning would alter the texture and culture of organizations and the
learning establishment. One gentleman was very excited about the role that
e-Learning might have in his ability to retain employees, while a CEO talked
to me about the impact of Collaboration Tools on openness and trust within
organizations. In many ways, they were skipping the technology stage and
going to the process issues that were key to implementation.
For the past few years, I have been predicting the increased role that major
telecoms would have in the learning marketplace. The participation of
Portugal Telecom gave immediate stature and confidence to this new project.
Folks felt that they would be able to integrate e-Learning into the national
infrastructure of communications. Their involvement made the technology
issues seem much smaller. Watch for similar investments and involvements
from other Telecoms.
AcademiaGlobal.Com is going live this summer. They are using Centra as the
digital collaboration tool and partnering with a wide range of content
providers in Portugal and beyond. Leon Navickas, President of Centra, was
at the event and talked about the expansion of digital collaboration beyond
the confines of training events to a broader set of collaboration processes
throughout the organization. As a deeply verbal culture, there was
excitement about role of IP based live dialogue in these processes.
e-Learning is clearly not an American phenomena. The majority of IT
e-Learning is built in Ireland and India. The governments of nations are
seeing e-Learning as a strategic issue. The excitement and commitment to
e-Learning in countries such as Portugal will take the field forward at
lightening speed.
We invite you to our upcoming e-Learning 2000 Europe Briefing, to be held in
Dublin, Ireland on July 10th and 11th. You will see a wide range of
approaches to e-Learning from an international perspective. Information and
on-line registration are available at http://www.masie.com
e-Learning with an International Flavor - Portugal Style
I saw a very different face for e-Learning yesterday during a visit to
Lisbon, Portugal. The first e-Learning Conference in Portugal was sponsored
by AcademiaGlobal.Com, a new learning portal launched by the Portugal
Telecom (the national telephone company) and Tracy International (a long
standing training and performance company). There were 350 leaders from
around Portugal at this one day event, including the Mayor of Lisbon, CEO's
of major corporations and HR/Training leaders. It was an amazing experience
to hear the phrase e-Learning role off the tongue of the Mayor, as he
articulated the key role that technology enhanced learning would have in
helping Portugal compete in the New Economy. It was striking to see the
head of the national telecom company articulate that LEARNING CONTENT was
critical to the future of the telecommunications industry.
As I gave the opening keynote for this convocation, I was struck by the
"political" content of the conversation. Every speaker from Portugal linked
e-Learning to economic, societal and political agendas. They saw e-Learning
as a national opportunity which would enable them to address these key
issues:
* The ability to provide learning to a broader range of citizens, throughout their lives,
regardless of location.
* The ability to provide strategic training to fill a current or sudden skill gap in the
labor marketplace.
* The ability to provide access to international expertise with a localization of both
language and context.
* The ability to export Subject Matter Expertise from Portugal to the global economy.
* The ability to use e-Learning across the entire Supply Chain, from customers to
suppliers to partners, allowing companies in Portugal to be more agile in competing in
e-Marketplaces.
* The ability to leverage collaborative technology to link learners throughout Portugal
and Portuguese speaking countries.
While there was clearly a commercial venture on the table in the announcement of a new
learning portal, the attendees saw this with great national pride. It was going to be a Portugal
e-Learning mechanism. The television stations were there, the national newspapers and
magazines were there and there was a deep sense of the country taking the next step on the
road to the Internet Economy process. They were going "e-Learning!"
The questions that arose during the breaks were also different from those
that are common at training events in the States. There were very few
technology or tools questions. The focus was almost entirely on how
e-Learning would alter the texture and culture of organizations and the
learning establishment. One gentleman was very excited about the role that
e-Learning might have in his ability to retain employees, while a CEO talked
to me about the impact of Collaboration Tools on openness and trust within
organizations. In many ways, they were skipping the technology stage and
going to the process issues that were key to implementation.
For the past few years, I have been predicting the increased role that major
telecoms would have in the learning marketplace. The participation of
Portugal Telecom gave immediate stature and confidence to this new project.
Folks felt that they would be able to integrate e-Learning into the national
infrastructure of communications. Their involvement made the technology
issues seem much smaller. Watch for similar investments and involvements
from other Telecoms.
AcademiaGlobal.Com is going live this summer. They are using Centra as the
digital collaboration tool and partnering with a wide range of content
providers in Portugal and beyond. Leon Navickas, President of Centra, was
at the event and talked about the expansion of digital collaboration beyond
the confines of training events to a broader set of collaboration processes
throughout the organization. As a deeply verbal culture, there was
excitement about role of IP based live dialogue in these processes.
e-Learning is clearly not an American phenomena. The majority of IT
e-Learning is built in Ireland and India. The governments of nations are
seeing e-Learning as a strategic issue. The excitement and commitment to
e-Learning in countries such as Portugal will take the field forward at
lightening speed.
We invite you to our upcoming e-Learning 2000 Europe Briefing, to be held in
Dublin, Ireland on July 10th and 11th. You will see a wide range of
approaches to e-Learning from an international perspective. Information and
on-line registration are available at http://www.masie.com
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