Learning Technologies Summer Forum

Further to my blog from the beginning of the year (which I wrote after the Learning Technologies Exhibition in February), I attended the Summer Forum Conference to see what had evolved and if I was able to answer the question I posed: where was the focus in 2019; skills or technology?

Unfortunately, while I came away from the day with no firm answer, I instead took away several interesting ways to view where this focus may lie in the context of the workplace and our everyday lives.

Here is a summary of my key takeaways:

Learning and Technology is different to Learning Technology

Learning is the process from which new knowledge, skill or behaviour is acquired, then demonstrated with outcomes measured against the original starting point.

Learning Technology is the range of resources available to solve a learning problem in a quicker, more efficient or effective way.

If you want to predict how technology will change how people learn…. Follow how technology is changing how people live!

With the increase of wearable technology, smart home equipment and the increased power and capability of our mobile devices, technology is fast influencing how we learn through our lives.

As technical and software experts attempt to replicate human grey matter with the grey matter of a silicon chip processing an algorithmic response or the answer to a voice activated request for new information…some might argue that the modern learner experience is now devoid of any human interaction or feedback!

There is no right or wrong with learning or technology: it’s only right or wrong in the context of how you apply it within your life or your workplace.

With all the information and analysis learning and technology can provide, the true measure of how successful we will be (when these two factors merge) is through the decisions we make and actions we take.

Being more informed doesn’t guarantee success, it merely increases the likelihood of making the correct decision and for this to happen a human interaction still needs to be present.

Artificial intelligence is not clever enough to replicate emotional intelligence? - not yet anyway!

To end, I will finish with this slightly adapted quote from William Shakespeare.

“For man (and technology) is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion”.