Sometime I Feel Like a Dine-Oh-Saur

I remember my Dad's buddy Tony who - aside from a stint as my Father's shipmate in the Pacific during the Big One - had spent most of his working life in a Pittsburgh steel mill before he was laid off forever. He kept telling my Dad he was too old to change and "...felt like one of them Dine-oh-saurs"

I feel like that sometimes lately. I feel like that when I talk to people who develop 'learning' programs or even when I read some of these blogs. I guess what I'm realizing is that the way things used to be done, is done.

Every now and again you read a piece by someone and you say "Spot on!", or whatever you say when that person hits an emotional mark, somewhere deep inside you. Here's what I read by Dr Allison Rossett, San Diego State University, Professor, Department of Educational Technology. She writes about the evolution of training:

"In the good old days, we wrote courses. We scheduled them. We taught them, or found somebody good to do it. Maybe we made a video or bought one. Maybe we evaluated the classes. Mostly we didn't. Everything is different today. US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan put it this way, "Human skills are subject to obsolescence at a rate unparalleled in American history." Effective organizations are running at warp speed in a global and fiercely competitive environment. New software, new products, new customers, new competition, and new possibilities demand our attention.

If employees do not feel well served by us, they can reach beyond us to online classes, communities, modules and e-coaches, no matter the physical locations. Technology thus presents tasty opportunities for workforce learning and support. Consider blended approaches, online assessments and self-assessments, performance support, informal learning, knowledge management, communities of practice, and captology. What are some of these intriguing possibilities and how do they change what's possible for employees and what's expected of us?"

Indeed, I can only echo what she wonders when she asks 'what are some of these intriguing possibilities, how do they change what's possible for employees and what's expected of us?'. Sometimes I think everything I've learned about learning needs to be relearned. Sometimes I feel like a dine-oh-saur. Do you ever feel like a dine-oh-saur? Maybe it's time you should ... let me know.