Question:
I have spent the last 3 months writing a whitepaper on the role of education in the information age. It is titled Learning: The Critical Technology. The target audience is TRD/HRD professionals, business managers interested in improving organizational learning, and people interested in learning more about the way they learn. While many people in the internet learning communities have academic education backgrounds, I find others in education-oriented roles may not know the theory behind their polished practice.
Though writing the paper removed me from the internet community more than I liked, I think the hiatus has been a worthy one. I hope the document will help promote integrating education into all facets of organizations. Ultimately, I hope it will prompt others to focus on the needs of individuals in the learning process.
Wave is sending out, free of charge, copies of the whitepaper. (If you want many copies there many be a nominal shipping fee.) We are doing this to help further the training field and bridge the academic education/training community with the practitioners/corporate managers who have backgrounds in business and/or technology, not necessarily education.
Any comments???
Answer:
I received the attached announcement through another list and thought it something worthy of everyones attention. The topic closely matches my thesis project, training adult learners in the use of technology. Until I began research, I did not realize how little of this type of specific information is out there.
Research indicates that 65 to 75 percent of the work force will require some form of retraining. Much of this will focus on computing skills; Training Mag (Oct. 1994) reports that 65% of people being trained during 1994 received computer skills training. This figure may not reflect training received in firm specific technology.
These figures represent a knowledge and skill gap not seen since non tradictional management techniques were introduced during the 1980's. Considering the explosive growth of technology into the work environment, organizational performance and productivity will be maintained only through adult education in technology.
