Look Out - Video is Back, E-learning Guru Tells Kineo
Video used to be a key component of the training toolkit. When e-learning started, that went on hold – but now video is back, and will outlast many of the faddish new e-learning trends. So said Kevin Kruse, the ‘e-learning guru’, in a recent interview with Kineo, the leading e-learning consultancy.
[UKPRwire, Tue Apr 25 2006] In a recent interview with Stephen Walsh, partner with Kineo, Kruse noted that most of the trends that get talked up in e-learning circles don’t impress him too much. “I’m of the opinion that there’s not a whole lot of new things going on out there – we fall too easily into fad notions of trying to jump on every new idea and piece of technology”. An exception? Our old friend, video. “Video is coming back into its own…mainly because of broadband. You can see it from the consumer side, every site has a video window…the technology has finally caught up”. Kruse pointed out that as mobile phones and iPods have evolved to handle video, the potential for video-powered mobile learning has arrived.
Is this good news? One of the major advantages discussed by Kruse and Walsh in the interview was the increased potential for engagement in e-learning, and using it to create realistic simulations and goal-based scenarios.
But there’s another factor to bear in mind: cost. It’s one thing to develop PowerPoint and convert it using a low-cost too, it’s quite another to use video. “Writing original scenarios and casting them have a cost impact, but quality goes up too….much of what we’ve seen in terms of e-learning being fairly boring in terms of media is going to change,” said Kruse.
Kruse went on to discuss key issues including sustainable learning, views of the US e-learning market, and the value of learning communities. You can hear the full interview at http://www.kineo.co.uk/audio-downloads.html