I’m writing this from the quietest corner I can find (i.e. really not quiet at all!) at BETT - a huge exhibition of technology in learning, aimed mainly at the primary and secondary education sector. It’s not for the claustrophobic. Hundreds of exhibitors, thousands of keen salespeople, so I kept my head down and managed to learn something.

My main observation is that the education sector for children is massively competitive, creative, and technology-led, and that some of the underlying ideas would work very well for adult education. Important for a number of reasons, not least because today’s schoolkids are tomorrow’s employees, and from what I can see these employees are going to have very high expectations of how learning should be delivered!

For example, I talked to:

• A company that delivers “artificial intelligence” characters, who can be programmed to respond to learners with facial expressions, moods and spoken word. This would be great for softer-skills training – for example training people in child protection, using scenarios with child-like cartoon characters who respond with realistic moods – giving a level of feedback that can’t otherwise be done because it’s very hard to use “real children” in training!
• A company that provides e-learning and e-assessment “App” development tools, allowing you to design rapid e-learning and quizzes and deliver these to employees’ mobile and tablet computing devices.
• Two companies that deliver high-resolution, 3d models of the human body that could be delivered through, or used to enhance, e-learning technologies.
• A technical developer who has code to integrate Moodle (e-learning) and Sharepoint technologies, providing an integrated learning and knowledge management system and giving e-leaning systems the ability to deliver any structured organisational knowledge to the learner

…and I also spent far too much time on the “Lego for education” stand but that’s another story….

Part of our role as consultants is to research the best that other sectors have to offer, and then to bring these best practices to our clients. So expect to see and hear us talking more about these sorts of approaches when we next see you!

About Tim Newham

Tim is the founder and Managing Director at Think Associates Ltd. He takes an active role in helping clients and has specialist interests in organisation development, process improvement and knowledge management. Tim has over 10 years’ experience of managing large-scale performance and learning processes in the public sector, and focuses on building the bridges between HR policy/process, line management requirements, and IT systems to make life easier for staff. Tim has a First Degree in Engineering Systems and a Masters Degree in Management.

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