A-D
ADL. Advanced Distributed Learning, an initiative originally established by the U.S. Department of Defense and now a collaboration between government, industry, and academia. The purpose of the ADL is to ensure access to high-quality education and training materials that can be tailored to individual learner needs and made available whenever and wherever they are required. The ADL maintains a set of guidelines under the acronym SCORM to accomplish their purpose.
AICC. Aviation Industry CBT Committee. The granddaddy of standards bodies. Originally formered to set guidelines for the aviation industry, AICC concepts are the foundation for subsequent work by ADL, IMS, and others.
Andragogy. Word coined by Malcolm Knowles to describe how adults learn — which is different from how children learn (”pedagogy”). I’m beginning to suspect pedagogy denigrates children and that andra is the gogy to go with for all. Main points are:
- What’s in it for me?
- Let me decide how I’ll learn it.
- Where does this fit in relation to the other stuff I know?
- Sell me on learning this.
- Remove the obstacles from my path, please.
Asynchronous. [pretentious] Any time you like, e.g. watching a rerun on your VCR.
Bandwidth is a description of how much information can squeeze through a data pipe. Your intranet has high bandwidth; your dial-up connection is low bandwidth. Also used anthropomorphically, e.g. “He has low bandwidth” is equivalent to “He is a taco short of a combo plate” or “Her elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top.”
Bipolar thinking. The tendency to see everything in black and white when faced with shades of gray.
Blended. Current rage in eLearning circles. Means using more than one learning medium, generally adding an instructor component to web-based training. Duh! Blended is only a revelation for people who had been trying to do everything with just one tool – the computer. Classroom teachers having been blending various means of learning – lecture, discussion, practice, reading, projects, and writing, for example — for eons.
Blog. An easily updated personal website, generally updated daily and expressing. See About Blogs or look at a sample.
Blog digest, blogathy, blogerati, blogger bash, blogger ecosystem, bloggeral, blogoverse, blogistan, blognoscenti, blogapottamus, blogorrhea, blogosphere, blogroach, blogroll, blogspot, blogstipation, blogule, blurker. See Blog Vocabulary.
Boiling the ocean. Trying to cure all problems at once, often with a single tool.
Broadband. Unscientific term for sufficient bandwidth to receive streaming video and sound. Usually refers to bandwidth equal to or greater than DSL or Cable Modem speed.
Career Limiting Move. It refers to any incident that puts a roadblock in your career path. “Jack spilled coffee on the boss. It was a major CLM.”
Certification. Pass the test, get a certificate. This started with technical subjects, e.g. Certified Novell Engineer and Microsoft Certified Professionals. Cisco offers a progression of certificates that reminds one of the ranks in Boy Scouts. Since there’s no authority legitimizing the certifications, expect a continuing proliferation of these things. Certifications simplify hiring decisions; on the downside, they encourage “studying to the test.” For $500, I can get you an Certified Internet Time Professional ranking.
Chat. Real-time communication, text or voice. Generally, messages disappear when the session’s over. Otherwise, you’re probably having a discussion.
c-learning. Classroom learning. Used to be just “learning,” but now we need to differentiate c-learning from eLearning.
Collaborative filtering. Example: Amazon tells me that other people who like the books I like are buying a particular book.
Community. A group of people united by a common purpose who share information and knowledge with one another.
Community of Practice. An informal group that shares values, perspectives, and ways of doing things. The motivation to learn is the deisre to participate in a “community of practice.”
Complexity. It’s a nonlinear, interconnected world and you will never figure it out. Shit happens.
Content. What’s being learned, information. If it doesn’t cause change, it’s not information. The challenge is how to get the right content to right person, at the right time. This involves media choice (e.g., paper versus on-screen), speed, delivery cost, relevance, learner motivation, and other factors.
Context. The environment of content. Who’s talking? When? Why? Content and context are like inside and outside: you can’t have one without the other.
Content management system (CMS). A CMS supports the creation, management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of content from cradle to grave. A CMS helps users find what they’re looking for. It also separates content from presentation. See StepTwo Designs.
Course. Rigid unit of learning, generally expressed in days and ‘led’ by an instructor. Opposite: ‘Just enough.’
Dead-tree media. Paper-based publications.
Dynamic information. ‘Real time.’ Current, up to the second. Instead of reading pages prepared in advance, the pages are assembled on the fly, incorporating current information and taking into account current needs.
eLearning. Also e-Learning. Best practices for learning in the new economy, implying but not requiring benefits of networking and computers such as anywhere/anytime delivery, learning objects, and personalization. Learning on Internet time. Often includes ILT.