DevLearn 2007 – Day 1

I made it to San Jose and attended my first day of DevLearn 2007 today. So far so good! I’m staying at the Fairmont Hotel, where the event is being held, and I’m quite impressed. As always, The Guild comes through.

Here’s a recap of my first day:

Keynote: Sir Ken Robinson

What a great way to open the conference! Simply put, Sir Ken gets 5 out of 5 stars from me. His keynote focused on the premise that creativity is being ignored and even squandered by the corporate world. Unfortunately, I think he’s right. He cited several studies that show people "grow out" of creativity as they reach adulthood. How unfortunate… However, he encourages folks to snap out of this funk to ultimately improve how we live and grow. It probably sounds corny (unless you were there)…

Sir Ken has a book called Out Of Our Minds. Pick it up. Even though I haven’t read it, I can 99% guarantee that you’ll love it. Sir Ken gave a similar talk at the TED conference in 2006. Check it out here. He’s amazing. (Tony Karrer also blogged about Sir Ken’s keynote.)

I attended 3 sessions today. Here’s a quick wrap-up:

Session 1: Instructional Design for mLearning (David Metcalf)

I’m pretty new to mLearning. I think it’s a great idea (in theory), but I think it’s trickier to implement (in practice). David did a great job of showing examples and discussing ways in which mLearning projects have failed…in order to show what can be successful. He provided several great examples; I’ll post links soon.

Session 2: State of the eLearning Industry (Brent Schlenker and Steve Wexler)

Brent Schlenker and Steve Wexler discussed the findings of The eLearning Guild’s research staff over the past year. They covered everything from salaries of eLearning professionals to the effectiveness of simulations and mLearning. This is awesome info. These guys should be applauded for the work they’ve done. If you’re not a member of The Guild, you should join just so you can access this information!!

Session 3: Applying Narrative Storytelling Approaches to Instructional Design (Carolyn Lee and Laura Kratochvil)

This session focused on incorporating storytelling in eLearning. This isn’t a comfortable area for all people because it requires creative thinking and storytelling skills that aren’t always easy to come by. Carolyn and Laura presented several ways to structure a story, using methodologies such as the hero model, anti-hero model, and several other ways of structuring stories to enhance learning. Good stuff…

The best part…

Just like The eLearning Guild’s Annual Gathering conference in Boston earlier this year, I’m finding that most learning comes from mingling with colleagues during breakfast and lunch sessions (and everywhere in between). I met 10+ people in my first day, and I know that number will continue to grow. We’ve discussed pros and cons of different tools, vendors, and methodologies. This is why I come to these events… Great stuff.

(FYI – Clark Quinn is blogging about DevLearn here. Brent Schlenker is doing a good job, too.)