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The future of learning

Travis Clapp, 20 June 2017

Hi! I’d like to start by being a touch controversial, if that’s possible any more:

  1. The LMS is dead

  2. Pull eLearning – never push

  3. Gamification must be lived

Let’s look at each of these statements on their own and then summarise, with a look at what’s next…

The LMS is dead

What is an LMS? It’s a learning management system. It reminds me of strict, authoritarian-style teaching in 1950s England with a hard stick and a pile of manilla folders. It’s very much a top-down hierarchical approach to learning.

But is this how we learn?

Pull eLearning – never push

As we see in the world of the LMS, whatever that is, it’s all about the trainer, who is often the spokesperson (real or virtual) of the higher entity, anyway. But what of the learner? Well, they have to do it – surely, they’ll find a way past any obstacle to reach their pay cheque… no, the future is not only ‘give it to me now as I need it’ but further ‘let me tell you what I need and how I need it’.

Start with the learner and work from there.

Gamification must be experienced

Okay, now we get to the serious stuff, way beyond challenging the traditional push pedagogies of bye-gone eras and the forced edu-nomics of throttled compliance… yes, let’s get serious on how we learn. There’s a lot of talk at the moment around ‘gamifying’ learning, ie turning college into an online battlefield, but aside from a few geeks who is going to challenge the e-giant on the hill?

Gamification is real, necessary and embedded in any real learning but it must be disguised in the form of VISA rewards, frequent flyer points and LinkedIn profile builder status and analytics.

Live, “pull” and experience collaborative learning

This may sound a little awkward but the future of eLearning is embedded reward structures and de-centralised eLearning tools that enable the learner to say how, why and when they would like to fall and stand up again, stronger than before.


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