My keynote to the first Latin American Conference on Learning Objects
(LACLO) noted a series of events and factors that exist in this region,
which I believe may well lead to unprecedented progress. The net result for the region will not only be getting "on the map",
but becoming a leader in the area of Learning Objects, learning, and
performance.
Here is an easily viewable version of my presentation using the very handy new SlideShare utility (see www.slideshare.net for more info). And for those who would like to reuse and repurpose any of these slides, covered by Creative Commons license as always, you can download LACLO.ppt.
One of the factors that may lead to unprecedented progress in this region is their opportunity to "leapfrog" over past and current technologies and models to create an entirely new one. Rising oil prices have provided a tremendous increase in funding in this region because they have been using the revenue in part to create a region wide infrastructure of technology and wiring up the whole area with unbelievable amounts of bandwidth. In Ecuador for example they have a government policy that anything over $25 a barrel goes exclusively to funding four key areas: education, agriculture, science & technology and nuclear medicine. Think about what sort of budget increase that has been in the last few years!
By creating a focus on Learning Objects (and what is essentially mass amounts of content development, management, and sharing across the whole of Latin and South America), this region has the very real potential to jump from almost no presence in these technologies, methodologies, production, and use, to a true leadership role. In my keynote, I noted this potential, as well as the fact that this event was largely initiated by the close partnerships they have been forming with consortia in Europe, such as the ARIADNE Foundation.
In my keynote I encouraged them to avoid standing beside or behind those who have gone before them, and instead, leap up and practice the art of "standing on the shoulders of giants"--using all the lessons learned by other pioneers to start from this point and go beyond. I also encouraged them to consider NOT repeating or improving upon what others have done, but rather, to focus on new areas that need to converge for a more holistic, systemic, and substantial approach to learning and performance. These areas include more automated metadata generation, pattern recognition, a very granular treatment of human competencies, and creation of personalized performance objectives.
All of these factors and events bode very well for their success in creating of a whole network of repositories of content based on mass contributions from with this vast region and within a global framework of sharing and reuse. While one never wants to mistake potential for reality, the promise is very real based upon the energy and commitment I witnessed. I encourage us all to keep an eye on the progress made by LACLO and to join in contributing to and benefiting from this exciting new development. I know I will.
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