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We are now at LawNet in Boca Raton, FL and listening to the latest and greatest in legal technology-speak. After hearing a great lecture on deploying Office XP by Donna Payne of Payne Consulting, we were astonished. An informal handraising of 100 students yielded that 80%+ of law firms expect to deploy Office XP in the next 6-12 months. That is phenomenal. More advanced training will be needed.

Look here for the latest.

Finally time to get back to Bloggin'

First, a reference to an ASTD page. If you are at the beginning stage of implementing an e-learning plan - lots of great info at www.astd.org....a road mapfor implementation.

Route 1: Putting Courses Online and Route 2: Corporate-Wide E-Learning

Yep...o.k. one more thing about bloggin'....Ernie also mentions the Legal Bean Blog...so check that out too....enough...

back to e-learning...tomorrow...CUSTOMIZATION!!! and e-learning in the law firm...What does it really mean...what...what...

I was checking back in with those wonderful women at www.llrx.com - to see what their day of news held - and saw that the first article was written by ERNIE THE ATTORNEY...and referenced his weblog...

Ernie is an attorney in NOLA...what about that...I had no idea...as a woman of the deep south myself - I was delighted to find a reference to his law practice in New Orleans. If you are interested in Blogging and the Law - Ernie's THE MAN...

Here's a quick quote from his site...where he writes of Megnut - another great source for Bloggers..

"So explain this blogging thing again...


"Megnut wrote the blogging piece we've been waiting for. 'As with free speech itself, what we say isn't as important as the system that enables us to say it.' Yes." [Scripting News]

The people who aren't reading blogs have no clue. The people who are reading blogs, but not doing it, understand something (in varying degrees) but the understanding isn't sharp. Those who are blogging are stumped by the implications of it, and are often (as in my case) obsessed with trying to grasp explain the possible implications to people who don't blog (boy is that a waste of time for all concerned). I guess it is better to simply blog, and let blog."

I wasn't able to attend the ASTD Conference. Were there any particular "take-aways" you could share? It would be particularly helpful if you saw any industry trends that might indicate a change in the direction e-Learning seems to be taking, or in the status of projects which have been on hold due to the current economy. Thanks, d.

This is a post made to the yahoo group elearningleaders. I started the post and seemed to have generated some discussion. My original note is below and the ensuing conversation follows. ENJOY!

I have been a long time "listener" of the group, but this is my first
post.

Our company is a e-Learning content developer and integrator
exclusively for the legal industry. We went to the ASTD Conference
in New Orleans yesterday just to see what was going on. From someone
who is in the industry, I was extremely disappointed in what I saw
from the national e-Learning leaders.

If I had one more firm come up to me and tell me that they were a
blended learning solution featuring an LMS that no one else could
touch for $50K, I would have thrown up my beignets :-). We have long
taken the posture in our business that the LMS functionality is not
really more than just a reporting tool and that within the next two
years, LMSs will be religated to obscurity in relation to what really
matters in e-Learning . . . CONTENT! Is it that I don't get it or
is the industry off its rocker. It seems like to get firms to adopt
e-Learning that the national providers are making firms make huge
technology decisions and investments in the least important thing
(the LMS) before they can deliver the most important thing (the
content). Big firms could develop pilot implementation with any
hosted solution so that the firm had literally no technology risk
associated with e-Learning.

We are working with a company that has actually developed a freeware
LMS that will be released in July. It is not sexy, but it runs on
linux and is free and has most of the functionality that any firm
would use.

I would like some constructive criticism and/or validation of my
points here.

Thanks.
Alan

Alan Lange
VP Business Development
Way2Smart
alange@way2smart.com
601-981-1644 (v)


I'll dive into this very lively discussion... [with brackets]

--- In elearningleaders@y..., Clark Quinn wrote:
> Alan,
>
> > If I had one more firm come up to me and tell me that they were a
> > blended learning solution featuring an LMS that no one else could
> > touch for $50K, I would have thrown up my beignets :-). We have
long
> > taken the posture in our business that the LMS functionality is
not
> > really more than just a reporting tool and that within the next
two
> > years, LMSs will be religated to obscurity in relation to what
really
> > matters in e-Learning . . . CONTENT!

[ The end to end solution in e-learning is still not understood. The
term blended learning is, well, lame. Worse than that, it has been
appended as noted here to the same solution offerings we had before
the term became trendy. Learning is learning, it has always been
blended, that fact has been so obvious that no one bothered to
mention it before in the context of e-learning. We should not pride
ourselves in the fact that it took the industry 3 or 4 years to
acknowledge the obvious reality that learning has and does encompass
a range of tools, environments and approaches. The e behind all of
that equates to technology]


> And when I worked for an LMS provider, we would say that anyone can
(and
> everyone does) write content, but it's how you track and manage it
in ways
> that makes sense to the learner and their managers that's important.
> Content is content, whether from a small house, a big house, or
internal.

[ yes and no - content is content, but not everyone writes it (and
more should be, reason why not we've made too hard and expensive).
Biggie here - not everyone needs to track all content and simply
knowing that x student flipped through 3 modules doesn't tell you
anything about whether they've learned it. That requires assessment
and guess what, a lot of folks don't even need that. The assumption
that all content need be passed through the most complex route is
wrong and limits success - nothing in the world sadder than a very
expensive e-learning solution deployed with a handful of 20 or 30
minute course which have little substance to them (not much more
content than powerpoints). ]


> The point is, content providers want to commoditize the L(C)MS, and
the
> L(C)MS vendors wants to commoditize content. It's about owning the
> relationship with the customer, really.
> Which *should* prevail? Heck, I don't know. Both should be
commodity's,
> and it's the service relationship that's king, from the customer's
point of
> view, I reckon...

[ the commodity should be end to end solutions with mulitple
(univeral services) content options ]


> > Is it that I don't get it or
> > is the industry off its rocker. It seems like to get firms to
adopt
> > e-Learning that the national providers are making firms make huge
> > technology decisions and investments in the least important thing
> > (the LMS) before they can deliver the most important thing (the
> > content). Big firms could develop pilot implementation with any
> > hosted solution so that the firm had literally no technology risk
> > associated with e-Learning.

[as noted in another post, the LMS emerged as a funded requirement
through trainign departments, not based on any analysis of what an e-
learning solution should or could be. ]



> Let me take the other side, just for argumentation sake.
Increasingly,
> we're getting tools so firms can create their own content. The
content
> firms will have to either get narrow margins to compete with inhouse
> development, or specialize in a narrow market of expertise. In
either case,
> they're not the major issue for the customer, who wants an end-to-
end
> solution (or so say the analysts).

[wrong view of content - there will always be a market for structured
educational content versus informal, internal etc. The advent of non-
fiction books, how to magazines didn't put educational content print
publishers out of business did it ? ]


As David Baucus has been saying, the
> real issue is who has the capability to integrate into a
comprehensive IT
> solution? I wouldn't bet on the content firms. Of course, I don't
expect
> the IT firms to really understand learning nor interfaces, so the
solutions
> from the vendors tend to fail on the user experience side.


[ The real issue is not the ability to integrate, that is the
byproduct of current reality in our market. The real issue is that a
framework for industry has yet to emerge, one that accurately
responds to a market need. We can keep slapping things together that
weren't really designed to work together but we sure as heck hope
that isn't the to be picture... ]


> In thinking about it (for the first time, really), I'd say that a
services
> firm (of which I'm not one) that has some IT folks, some learning
folks,
> some interface folks, and some business folks, would be the best
partner for
> a firm. (I've got a smattering of all, but mostly the learning and
> interface; anyone want to partner to build such a firm? :-)

[tough market for that... I think most clients are still waiting for
us to paint a good picture of how we're getting from a to z and
holding off on investments until they get an intelligent answer, I
can't say that I blame them ]


> > We are working with a company that has actually developed a
freeware
> > LMS that will be released in July. It is not sexy, but it runs on
> > linux and is free and has most of the functionality that any firm
> > would use.
>
> There's another available from some firm in Finland that is open
source and
> incorporates EML. I think you can find it from the EML site
(eml.open.ne)
>
> > I would like some constructive criticism and/or validation of my
> > points here.
>
> Hope this qualifies. All the best, -- Clark


[freeware implies more glueware integration - we need and industry
vision, right now ]


>
> --
> Clark Quinn, Ph.D.
> OtterSurf Laboratories
> "Better Learning Through Technology"
> clark@o...
> 925-200-0881
> http://www.ottersurf.com

Just wanted to post a note - We are heading down to NOLA for the ASTD (American Society forTraining and Development) 2002 International Conference & Exposition . Over the last two days Lance Dublin (ldublin@pacbell.net) of Lance Dublin Consulting has been presenting two Preconference Workshops, "Building an Effective E-Learning Strategy: The Art and the Science," and "Marketing E-Learning In-House: Getting the Most From Your E-Learning Investment". If you are implementing an e-learning inititive - you might want to catch his upcoming Webinar: Implementing E-Learning: Ensuring You Get the Results You Want- Lance Dublin June 13, 2002, from 1 - 2 PM EST. Click here to enroll.

We will be joining several e-learning professionals for a soiree in the French Quarter - and will get back to you with conversations related to law firm training efforts....stay tuned....

It goes without saying that the switch by law firms to Windows/Office XP is a huge driver for training and technology spending. Firms are taking the opportunity to upgrade a wide variety of software packages to take full advantage of the power and multimedia capabilities that XP makes possible. The question that I have for firms is, how are you going to make sure that your users are as competent in the new applications as possible? Several AmLaw Top 200 firms are incorporating e-Learning into the budgeting and rollout planning for this all important transition.

Something else that our firm has noticed from both a staffing perspective and an IT perspective. Within a law firm considering a migration, there is a tremendous amount of angst on the part of word processors, secretaries and paralegals whose lifeblood are these technology tools. Having been so loyal and dependent on Word Perfect for so many years and now finally faced with reality of true change, we have even heard of legal office professionals that would rather quit rather than switch.

I will put it to the group. Is managing the change to XP as much of a cultural change as much as a technology change? If so, how do you manage both changes?

I've been in the adult learning industry for 15 years and it's fun to watch Way2Smart talking and teaching to the people, here at the show. They have a great story to tell about bringing e-learning into the law office. People are excited about the opportunities this new form of employee enhancement can bring to their own firms. Wish you could be here with us to partake of the atmosphere.

Posted by DENESE SCHMELZKOPF

Last day of ALA....we are inviting different e-learning folks to join in on a round table discussion...but until that time - most of the by-lines will be mine.

So to jump in today - before we set up all the names - I would like to introduce Denese Schmelzkopf of ElementK - who is present with us in our booth at ALA...Take it DENESE:

Day 2 of ALA and things have been going a mile-a-minute.

Joining us in the booth today was Denese Schmelzkopf with Element K. Element K is one of the firms that supplies content to Way2Smart. Interestingly enough, firms have expressed interest in the interpersonal skills training like the Harvard Leadership Line of training by Element K as well as the more traditional IT and desktop applications skills. Regardless of what passers-by were interested in, interest in e-Learning was the highest we have experienced and it finally seems like firms are really grasping the concept that e-Learning will be a major part of the operations of their firms in the future and that they need to gain experience quickly, even if it is isolated to small projects and pilots.

We have had the fortune of having several good friends visit the booth. Stopping by from Intelliteach was Lance Waagner. Intelliteach is a full-service training and integration firm based in Atlanta, GA. However, they service a wide range of firms nationwide. We are beginning to see the same firms engaging traditional instructor-led firms are also approaching e-Learning firms so that there is a true blended training component to their pending technology migrations.

Bonnie Speer McGrath, CEO of Perfect Access Speer and noted legal industry technology expert also spent some time illuminating us on the peaks and valleys of e-Learning in the legal space.

We will have a complete wrap-up after tomorrow's events.

Well, it's opening day at the ALA Conference in San Antonio! Last night's welcome function was filled with mexican food, margaritas, sticker trading and catching up with old friends. Our group was engaged in several conversations about law firms undertaking new training initiatives along the lines of vertical practice areas and e-Learning as it involves support for the ubiquitous Windows/Office XP migration that people are either planning or are in the middle of.

There are several training firms here at the ALA that are beginning to incorporate e-Learning into their corporate training approach. Intelliteach (formerly Next-Step.com) is one of the leaders. Lance Waagner and his team are beginning to preach the gospel and will be someone to watch in the legal training space.

More later as we have it!

Getting ready to jet off to the ALA conference in Texas and noticed a new posting to the ALA website. Reads as follows:

"If you can't make it to ALA's 31st Annual Conference & Exposition in San Antonio, be there virtually beginning Tuesday, May 21. Review recaps of Warren Bennis' keynote address, Erin Brockovich's general session, Stephen C. Lundin's general closing session and various educational sessions posted for your virtual Conference experience. Winners of the ALA Chapters' Awards, Silent Auction results and happenings in the Exhibit Hall will also be highlighted." There's something to be checking out if you are not headed that way.

The group from Way2Smart will be attending and we will be bringing you a daily posting of activities....If you are interested in particular sessions, events or any of the folks hanging out - drop us a quick line at erobinson@way2smart.com and we'll report back to you.

Woo Hoo! This morning I received an e-mail blast from LLRX.com - "a unique, free Web journal dedicated to providing legal and library professionals with the most up-to-date information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools." I'm sure you are familiar with this journal - but if you're not - then you've got to sign up for the Update. LLRX is powered by Sabrina Pacifici and Cindy Chick - law librarians with 46 years of collective experience...These ladies RULE!

Anyway, the Update had an article written by Cindy Carlson - the Electronic Resources Librarian at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson. Cindy's column E-Learning: Lessons from the Winston & Strawn Experience is a great read and includes an interview with Amy Wharton and Trish Uhi. Get into the section where Trish starts to explain the variety of tools that are available. These women have wisely spent time looking at the choices made by the corporate world.