Recently, I attended a different sort of conference, one for leaders from the many local American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) chapters around the country. And with so many talented people, it was no wonder that the conference had a full schedule of presentations to choose from, with plenty of advice available in all the major areas of concern to a chapter, such as programs, membership, finance, and so on (see the program and handouts ). It was called the "ASTD ALC" or Chapter Leaders Conference (see their FAQ for details ). MORE >>

On January 9 th 2009, firefighter Robert O’Neill was at the wheel of a 22-ton fire truck as it headed down a steep street in Boston. His efforts went to no avail and the truck crashed through the brick wall into an apartment building injuring several children in an afterschool program and killing his colleague, firefighter Lieutenant Kevin M. Photo from Boston Globe Story. Training that helped drivers understand how air brakes worked might have helped—just before the accident the driver turned the truck around in a parking lot releasing air pressure in the braking system. MORE >>

Because I knew the business and had helped design our software package, and because I was pretty good in front of a crowd, I ended up doing the training. One thing led to another and a couple of years later, I got hired at a small multi-media production company that developed corporate training programs delivered on CD ROMs. 16 years later I’m still at it, designing elearning programs for the (mostly) corporate market. How did you end up designing elearning programs? Look at lots and lots of elearning programs for inspiration? What about you? cammybean. MORE >>

In the old days, work was mechanical; workers learned the skills and knowledge to do their jobs from training sessions and then performed their job function. Traditionally, training departments were designed for mechanical work processes. Training identified knowledge gaps and delivered courses to close them. Hard-copy training material cannot train you to handle unique situations. Traditional training approaches are no longer enough. Does this imply that training departments are obsolete? 50 suggestions for implementing 70-20-10. part 1 of 5. MORE >>

link] November 30-December 2, 2011, Online Educa Berlin 2011: International Conference on Technology Supported Learning and Training for Corporate, Education and Public Service Sectors , 17 th , Hotel InterContinental Berlin, Berlin, Germany. link] December 4-5, 2011 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology , Boston, Massachusetts, USA. link] December 5-6, 2011 Academic Medical and Health Science Centers : Integrated Plans for Integrated Programs, 5 th annual, San Diego, California, USA. MORE >>