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At 195 pages long analyzing the key elements of the report is time consuming, but thankfully these have been distilled by the BBC, Guardian and PaidContent. There was plenty of splash with lots of blog posts and twitter conversations (tweets)  from @ digitalbritain and @guardiantech showing what progress has been made. The chatter on  #DigitalBritain is worth a read.

The key issues that may affect e-learning include:

• A three-year plan to boost digital participation.
• All of the UK will have broadband of 2mbps by 2012, this will be paid for in part by the public. This date will be a deadline for a switch-off of ‘analogue’ government services. This will be paid for by everyone.
• All radio to be digital by 2015.
• Gaming will play an increasing role in education.
• More powers to combat digital piracy which is inevitably going to continue to increase in parallel with broadband speeds increase.
• More investment in digital innovation and jobs, up to £120m.
• Professionals to provide ICT training for schools in a new pilot scheme in the digital media sector.

The Digital Britain report is very welcome, ensuring citizens have broadband access is one of the places where doing nothing is putting the nations future at risk. This investment will cover both wired broadband provision with a stated aim of 2MBps minimum for every household.  Mobile providers will also be encouraged to invest in 3g and 4g provision, a similar scheme that has worked well with 3s subsidiary in Ireland.

The Prime Minister himself has further clarified his thoughts by saying the Internet is as vital as water, gas or the roads. It is a must for a talent driven, knowledge economy.  In a week were Gordon Brown had asked Sir Tim Berners-Lee to help guide the nation toward opening up  access to Government data on the web, the Digital Britain report is very welcome. The report gives a glimpse of a not so distant future , and to steal a phrase from Bill Thompson of the BBC “it is one that those of us who already live a networked life need to clarify, share and work to build”.

Whitbread PLC is the UK’s largest hotel and restaurant group. Their market leading brands are Premier Inn, Beefeater, Table Table, Brewers Fayre, Taybarns and Costa Coffee. Whitbread PLC employs over 33,000 people and serves 9 million customers every month in its 1,800 outlets across the UK.

Whitbread say that as an industry which experiences particularly high levels of turnover, the central aim of their Skills for Life programme is to ensure that team members have the confidence and competence to deliver great guest service. Each team member undergoes our U-skills on-line screener and diagnostic assessment followed by high-quality e-learning content blended with individual, face-to-face, specialist support.

Skills improvement has become a key element of the Whitbread induction process. New Starter Champions within their business promote and encourage learning to all team members new and existing across the company.

Whitbread won the award after being able to report some significant impacts on their business, notably:

• 27% increase in positive guest recommendations reported at one site
• Over 1000 diagnostic assessments completed, with an achievement rate of 85%
• Retention rate of 98% of pilot programme learners, compared to business average of 55%
• Why not find out what positive impact Skills for Life can have on your business?

What was interesting though, was that each speaker was given the brief of presenting on the future of digital marketing, and specifically within their industry. And each speaker struggled with the theme, practically apologising for not really being able to provide the answers let alone predictions. Why? Because it’s impossible in the world of technology we live in today to predict more than a few months into the future. You only have to look at the Twitter phenomenon. Even six months ago, a vast majority of not only companies but individuals had never heard of Twitter, let alone dreamt of introducing it as a sales and marketing tool. Low and behold if you’re not twittering these days you are probably being twittered about behind your back for not keeping up.

However this also got me thinking of how we are so easily influenced and will jump on the latest bandwagon without a thought of what we really want it to do for us. Keeping up with the Jones’s is very much alive when it comes to marketing and more specifically technology trends. Dell this week announced they had earned over $3 million through Twittering. However if you look at the Dell business model you can understand why. On the other hand a company that one, does not have the brand awareness of a multi-national like Dell and two, requires a detailed sales process will find themselves struggling to convince the CFO that investing in a full time Twitterer was a good idea.

So how does a business determine which elements to adopt and which to gracefully decline (for now anyway). By asking questions like what are our goals and objectives and are we looking in the right places to achieve these; where are the people I need to be influencing, at what stage of a sales process are they and what do they want to hear from us? If our customers are not on Twitter or Facebook then why should we waste our time using these as marketing tools. All too often, marketers and sales people spend their time telling customers and more critically prospects what they think they want to hear and not what they actually want to hear.

What we need to be doing is listening!

Regardless of your approach to training there is a need to truly understand the dynamics that distinguish different learners. Why? Because a strategy that treats everyone alike can never be as successful as one that is personal and recognises that people aren’t alike and won’t respond in the same way to a given learning intervention.

Classifications such as the one shown below are fine and provide insight but they only really give us information on how technologies are being adopted by a group of people. A challenge in creating a performance driven culture is the changing values of the workforce. As we have spoken about before today’s younger workers have vastly different career aspirations and work motivations than that of their predecessors. These newest entrants, the “Millennial Generation” or “Generation Y,” are even more socially conscious and technology savvy. These workers are always in touch with each other using mobile phones, Internet chat and email. They do not necessarily see a career as an upward path rather; they see it as a way of finding self-actualisation and personal growth.

What does this mean in the context of creating a performance driven culture? It means devising new ways to motivate these employees to high achievement. The younger generations will not be incentivised by individual monetary rewards alone. They must see values and purpose besides financial gain. This is part of the challenge for management in the coming years as we need to provide knowledge management platforms to:

• Harness collective intelligence
• Leverage corporate memory
• Leverage informal learning
• Spot and manage talent

Without doubt the answer is rich employee profiles. But how many online profiles do you think you have right now? I have, too many to even count! Such is the case with anyone that uses Web 2.0 sites these days. But whether you have boat loads of profiles or just a few, you need a way to manage your profile information.

What’s required is a searchable profile that includes HR, training history, employee interests, and career progression along with other key pieces of information. This profile will act as an aggregator so that all of your information is centralised and available for use in any system be it an LMS dashboard or talent management suite. This will continue to evolve as new technologies enter the scene and informal learning environments in the workplace-where people collaborate, share information, and create content-become more common.

As a red blooded male with the mentality and attention span of an angry child, I’ve always enjoyed action films. While he was possibly my least favourite, Arnold Schwarzenegger undoubtedly was an action star. He is, after all, the voice of such fantastically unforgettable quotes like “If it bleeds we can kill it”, “Remember when I said I’d kill you last…I lied” and of course “I’ll be back”.

I’ll admit I was a tad sceptical when he won his current role as the Governor of the State of California. Maybe I still am, however news reached us this week of an interesting initiative that he’s proposing for the California education system. Schwarzenegger has instructed education officials to review free online education materials to assess their suitability for use by California’s school children.

While it may only be a means to reduce California’s budget deficit, what Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing really could be a learning revolution. As the largest state in America, California’s actions could have ramifications that are felt and acted upon throughout the US, and maybe even beyond. Many would argue that it’s about time too, as he said himself “California is home to software giants, bioscience research pioneers and first-class university systems known around the world. But our students still learn from instructional materials in formats made possible by Gutenberg’s printing press.”

At ThirdForce we are all for revolutionising learning. This could be the first steps in crowning the former Mr. Universe as the ‘Last Education Hero’. Maybe from now on we can expect quotes along the lines of “If it surfs we can teach it”, “Remember when I said open your book…well go online” or “I’ll be online”, OK this is probably not going to happen, but if I was writing his speeches I honestly don’t think I could resist the temptation!

Ever since Pong was introduced to arcades in the early 1970s computer graphics have continued to become much more sophisticated. Soon, game graphics will seem all too real. In the next decade, developers plan to pull graphics out of your television screen or computer display and integrate them into real-world environments. This new technology, called Augmented Reality (AR), will further blur the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell.

Video games often drive innovation. First the Wii and now project Natal which is Microsoft’s fully hands-free control system that will use face recognition and motion sensors to allow users to play games. The demo has to be seen to be believed. The technology looks very interesting but its success will depend on the content and how easy it is to use.

More commonly known examples of AR are the branded rugby fields and cricket pitches showing their sponsor’s logos. Giant logos are inserted onto the fields when viewed on television. Whereas two years ago AR visual trickery was only within the grasp of high end developers it is now possible to implement AR using Adobe Flash. There is a bunch of demos literally flying around the web at the moment, the most impressive of which are from General Electric and Papa John Pizza’s . All that you need to get started is a web cam and a printer.

Whilst AR that appears in your field of view is still some way off, we currently have the technology with location based services on mobile phones to implement induction or performance support training that incorporates AR. Picture an employee walking around their work environment with a GPS and RFID enabled mobile device and a t-shirt that has the required AR pattern. Whilst relatively simple to implement this would be a game changer in terms of transfer of skills to the work place.

At ThirdForce as part of the launch of the new Syllabus 5 for the ECDL we are running a series of short webinars alongside our information days for new and existing customers. Like any organisation needing to communicate with an audience that is scattered around a wide landscape, we find it a challenge. Along comes webinar technology and suddenly this problem is all but solved. They allow the presenter to interact with their audience, providing a level of participation that would be experienced if on-site and all supported by the play back facility to recap on any elements.

Targeted audience

The ease at which participation is enabled means webinars are a growing business. This also means an increased level of competition to sign up your audience and engage them until the finish. Topics must be highly relevant, speakers must be experts and there must be obvious value to committing 30 or 40 valuable minutes to a session. The upside though is you are pretty much guaranteed that your audience is very much on target. It’s certainly a case of quality not quantity as you know that each one is actually interested in you as otherwise they would sign off very quickly. This is often not the case for on-site seminars, as once committed to travel and to attend and then to realise that it is not maybe as relevant as expected, a full day is often wasted, not to mention the costs implicated.

Webinars are also a fantastic leave behind. How often have you participated in one, revisited it and the resources associated with it, and recommended it to a colleague? Suddenly a webinar is much more than a single sales or marketing activity, its’ viral effect can have a great impact.

Our webinar series begins on the 16th of June and given the uptake so far I believe we will be running each one more than once. If you haven’t experienced a webinar, sign up for the next one you come across that is relevant to your business or interests. You will I think be pleasantly surprised at how effective a tool they have become and should be part of any marketing mix.

In the 1990s, it was common to hear that “the Internet changes everything.” This was to act as a warning to companies who were slow in putting up websites and making e-commerce available to their customers.

Ten years later the Internet has expanded exponentially, it now is the Marketing Department. Most companies of size have websites, e-commerce, and dabble in e-shot marketing. But despite all these moves, businesses are in danger of losing control of the Internet-fuelled conversation about their products and services, putting their reputations at risk. Enter the groundswell as an unstoppable force, one that today’s companies must understand and embrace.

I’ve just finished reading “Groundswell” a leading book on winning in a world transformed by social technologies, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff from Harvard Business Press. Whether you are still scratching your head about what’s going on, or you’re a veteran new media marketing strategist, you need to get out your magic marker and your sticky notes, and go sit in a quiet corner and read this book. It’s not only the most lucid explanation of how social media has changed the world; it’s a massively fun read. Dell for example is covered extensively as a company that went from Dell Hell and flaming notebooks to being the poster child for embracing social technologies with their customers

Being an engineer rather than a marketer I was most interested in Chapter 11 “The Groundswell inside your company”. The authors provide  an easy to understand strategy for participating in the Groundswell. The Internal Groundswell is about taking an holistic approach, ranging from a CEO blog (internally focused) to the use of wikis and social networks to connect far-flung employees. An example from the book that shows both the upside and downside of having such media in the office is Best Buy’s internal community site Blue Shirt Nation. Blue Shirt Nation allows Best Buy’s so-called Blue Shirt sales staff to swap ideas and problem-solve together. When the company tried to trim its employee discount, the Blue Shirts mounted a Blue Shirt Nation revolt that forced Best Buy to cancel its plans.

Every company has its own unique communication problems, but in general terms, the bigger a company the more of a problem internal communication becomes. Information flows down the management ladder, but getting information back to management and knowing how to encourage collaboration and communication is an order of magnitude more difficult. To figure out what works for a specific company  the companies need to be ready to fail often, fail early and most important, fail cheaply.

Archetypal roles like evangelists, inactive users and rebels all play their parts in tapping the Groundswell of ideas amongst the people who best know how your business is run, your employees.  The authors also point out that staff business processes revolve around knowing each other and, more importantly, around the work that each person does. Culture, relationships and simple ground rules set the stage for the success or failure of internal initiatives, but also, “it sure helps if the social technologies have an manager or two behind them.” It’s important that participation be made easy and desirable, not strong-armed.

The explosion of blogs, wikis, podcasts, online videos, social networking sites, and cyber chat rooms has altered the traditional relationship between companies and their employees. Employers  must face the challenges of adapting to informal grass-roots movement of people deploying online tools to learn, connect and swap information, tips, and rumours.

Screencasting is an increasingly popular sort of “virtual classroom,” allowing learners to learn in their own time and at their own pace using video tutorials. The advantages of the classroom setting stem from a one-on-one experience and the ability of the instructor to show ideas and theories rather than simply explain them.

Learning by watching enables a learner to take note of where everything is in an application or demonstration of a procedural task. In most cases the ability to pause or rewind also gives the learner the power to move at their own pace, a benefit a classroom cannot typically offer. Screencasting does not require high levels of instructional design to be very effective. The training can be made available to new starters or all employees on an ongoing basis.

For a training manager, Screencasting offers the capability to explain in detail what may be more confusing when delivered aurally or in written words. With the combination of video and audio, the creator can mimic the one-on-one experience of the classroom and deliver clear, complete instruction.

Screencasts could be based on anything from a particularly challenging aspect of Microsoft Access that learners are struggling with to a short product demo.

The best screencast software that I’ve been able to find is Camtasia Studio, from TechSmith. It not only allows for recording and pausing but also allows editing of transitions and titles. Once finished, you’re given a plethora of video formats to write to including iPod options for performance support scenarios.

How to get started today for free
CamStudio is a quick and lightweight screen capture application that allows for recording of video and sound to either an .avi or Flash based swf file. It features the ability to place banners/text boxes with supporting text. This application records only and does not allow for editing, but is a very functional screen capture option and is free for any training manager to get started with.

At ThirdForce, we regularly use Camtasia to produce short video demos of many of our courses. They are a quick and effective way to provide customers with an overview of our latest materials. You can view our videos on YouTube or alternatively visit our video library to see them in action.