Learning Technologies Conference
28 - 29 January
Europe's leading L&D conference
For over a decade, Learning Technologies (now in association with Learning and Skills) has been Europe’s leading conference for organisational learning and the technology used to support learning at work.
Using Open Badges in learning
Doug Belshaw, Mozilla Foundation and Tim Riches, CEO, DigitalMe
This session focused on Mozilla's Open Badges Infrastructure (OBI) a new, web-native way to credential learning, affiliation and compliance training.
In this session Doug Belshaw from the Mozilla Foundation and Tim Riches from DigitalMe showed participants:
- How to use badges as a common currency of recognition
- Ways to design and deploy badges
- Potential methods to improve hiring practices through badges
- Non-linear badge pathways to engage employees
- Three key things to using badges successfully
Google Glass – the experience, the reaction, the possibilities
David Kelly, Training Director and Internal Learning and Performance Consultant
The internet and smart mobile devices have fundamentally changed how we look at learning and performance programmes. And now another technological advance is coming; one that will once again change some of our definitions and how we address performance issues: wearable technology. This technology will come in various forms, but the one that is blazing the path is Google Glass. David Kelly is one of the Glass Explorers (individuals exploring Glass before its public release) and has been investigating the different ways that Glass can be used for learning and performance improvement. In this session David focused on:
- What is Google Glass?
- What is the Glass experience like for the user?
- How do people react to Glass?
- What doors does Glass open for learning and performance?
- How are people already using Glass for learning today?
Future-cation: learning with today’s powerful technology
Marc Prensky, International Speaker, Writer, Consultant
The pace of technological change is accelerating – but culture and attitudes often lag behind. How can we adapt to today’s world while dealing with natural and often widespread resistance?
Marc Prensky (practical visionary) explored what this challenge means for L&D today. He focused on:
- How to use powerful technology powerfully (and stop worrying about it)
- Moving from ‘learning’ to ‘becoming’
- Pre-internet culture’s negative impact
- What the workplace and schools can learn from today’s learners
Mobile learning – practice and pitfalls
Terence Eden, Mobile Geek, The Lab – Powered by O2
"What we need," says your boss, "is an app!" A hush falls over the room. An app? How do you tell her that an app isn't necessarily the universal panacea she thinks? How do you ensure that the learning experience you deliver is useful? How do you make sure it's on budget and on time? What technologies will you need for creation, and how will different device types alter the learner experience? How do you test your assumptions? Terence Eden considers:
- Are apps an appropriate tool for learning?
- What prevents an excellent learning experience with an app?
- What mistakes do people make when creating an app?
- How much will this cost?
- How long will building an app take?
Addicted to the game of learning
Julie Wedgwood, juliewedgwood.com
Gamification is a word that can mean different things to different people. In this session Julie Wedgwood explored what gamification can mean in practice, looking at the techniques of the video game designers and the science behind video game addiction. Using evidence from neurological science, her experience of designing gamified learning experiences and examples from the video game world, Julie shared how learning and development can take features from video games and adapt them to create e-learning that learners want to learn from. Julie focused on:
- Why gamification doesn’t mean trivialising learning
- What makes a game addictive and why we need to play more of them!
- Playing, failing and changing behaviour
- Adding emotion rather than de-sensitizing the learner
- Gaming techniques and how to adjust them for learning
What's the future (WTF)? The effect of emerging technologies on business and culture
Brian Solis, Principal, Altimeter Group
A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has studied and influenced the effects of social media and disruptive technology on business, marketing, entertainment and culture. Brian argues that at work and in our lives, we face a daily onslaught of new devices and tidal waves of information, opinion and noise. He explores how the way we connect and communicate has fundamentally altered everything. How does social media affect the way we learn and interact with each other? If information is now costless, ubiquitous and instant, what does this mean for a profession once centred on giving people access to information? And, crucially, if people behave differently in today’s hyper-connected world of instant information (as they do) then what does their behaviour mean to us in the learning and development profession?