Learning Technologies 2000 at London’s Olympia had more solutions on offer than a university chemistry lab, but underneath the jargon and the techno-speak did it really bring learning and technology together?

Learning Technologies 2000 at Olympia, London was, according to the organisers, the first event specifically designed for the technology training and IT training professional. As such the exhibition easily lived up to its billing with just about all the exhibitors offering high-tech products and services for the training professional, albeit the IT trainer. But even with this caveat, the emphasis still lay more heavily on technology than on pedagogy. Sure, many of the exhibitors had an impressive number of courses on offer together with the technology for delivering them (NETg.com, Click2Learn.com, SmartForce.com) and several aimed to be the one stop shop for course bookings (CourseLeader.com, bookacourse.com) but few seemed to stress the learning dimension. Perhaps it’s just too early to say how effective many of the new technologies are at teaching and reinforcing learning.

Closer to the learning side were number of the companies providing services which include skill assessments to determine training needs and assigning training (CorporateLearning), but the solution for planning and managing long term structured learning programmes for the individual or smaller company seemed to be absent. Perhaps the dominance of IT specific content and the nature of the IT industry makes this feature less relevant but it will need addressing more clearly if trainers in other sectors are to buy into this technology. With this in mind and given the speed of developments in this area, Learning Technologies 2001 should be a very interesting exhibition.

Russell Holt,
Online Learning Director
Sift