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LearningWIRE – Issue 4
2 March 1998
A FREE electronic newsletter for net enabled people
engaged in training, learning, coaching and staff development.
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Copyright (C) 1998 Sift plc. All rights reserved.
May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes as
long as attribution is given.
In this issue
————-
– From the editor
– UK Internet penetration
– Site review: Association for Management Education and
Development
– STOP PRESS: Consultation paper on Lifelong Learning
– Browser tips
– TrainingZONE
– Site review: Railtrack
– About Sift
– How to Subscribe
>From the editor
—————
Here’s the fourth issue of LearningWIRE with more useful
information for people engaged in staff and organisational
development. This time I’m looking at a site which could be
useful but isn’t (- well, at least it means you’re warned before
you visit it); but to make up for this, I’m also reviewing one of
the most useful UK sites on the whole Net – and not just for
trainers.
Perhaps the concept of ‘learning’ will start to really take off
with the inclusion of a Learning Curve pavilion in the Millennium
Dome. I hope it will reflect current thinking about lifelong
learning, personal responsibility, new technologies, varied
styles, evolving roles, etc. On the other hand, if the Dome
becomes associated with a national flop, the whole concept could
sink without trace.
I do apologise for the delay in sending out the last issue. We’re
trying to publish every two weeks. The last issue got delayed
when the mailing list was moved to a different server. Hopefully,
this issue will reach you just a week after the last one.
Tim Pickles
Editor, LearningWIRE
UK Internet penetration
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Last year, UK internet connections were reported as increasing at
a staggering 12% per month. The latest quarterly survey from
Durlacher gives the following figures for the growth of the
Internet in the UK:
– 39% of small and medium enterprises have established an Internet
presence;
– 81% recognise that the Internet will be an intrinsic part of
their business’s future;
– 5 million people at work use email; and
– 3.1 million have an Internet e-mail address.
Whatever you think about the absolute accuracy of these figures,
the growth is incontrovertible. It’s really quite simple, as
trainers, facilitators and managers, we are going to be dealing
with people who expect to be able to communicate with us
electronically. Increasingly, we will be buying and selling
products and services on the Net. At their Online Sales site, MAP
give a league table of UK ISP live memberships.
http://www.internet-sales.com/hot/league.shtml
Site review: Association for Management Education and Development
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Each issue of LearningWIRE reviews a web site of interest to
people engaged in staff development and learning. I aim to both
inform you about sites you might want to visit, and warn you about
any potential limitations. Reviewed sites are graded according to
their Content and their Design. Star grades range from * to *****.
All the best sites will be directly accessible from TrainingZONE,
and will be included in the local area search engine offered by
TrainingZONE.
— oOo —
The Association for Management Education and Development [AMED] is
a professional network for people concerned with individual and
organisational development. Their web pages can be found at the
rather nifty URL:
http://www.management.org.uk
but if you want to go straight to anything useful you need the
ANET pages. (Whilst I assume ANET means Association Net, there was
no explanation.) You can find this main index at
http://www.management.org.uk/ANET/default.htm
This is primarily a site for the membership with only limited
Information of interest to the informed browser. The site has
mounted background papers on strategy, accounts and ethical policy
but you have to dig deeper to find anything useful about what the
association actually does. I did discover that membership
currently costs 87 UK pounds per year. However, the discussion
pages and even the news pages had blocked access without entering
membership details and a password. I think this is somewhat
short-sighted. It’s fine to bar non-members from contributing to
discussions and news but it didn’t encourage me to want to join.
AMED has initiated a useful Learning Exchange Trading Scheme
[LETS] which allows members to provide support and services to
each other on a non-monetary basis. It would be interesting to
hear from any readers who are members about how this is going.
My browser found the site had too many GIFs and applets which took
A disproportionate amount of time to load. The site managers say
it is still being re-designed, and my conclusion is that it
requires both simplifying and giving additional useful content to
become a bookmarkable site for most people.
My overall ratings are:
Content *
Design *
— oOo —
+++ Suggestions for future sites to review [large or small,
commercial or personal] are always welcome. Please send your
suggestions to the Editor at +++
STOP PRESS: Consultation paper on Lifelong Learning
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Just as I was putting the finishing touches to this issue, I
received news of the publication of the government’s consultation
paper. In fact three different papers have been published. Two
respond to Committee reports on the future of Further Education
and Higher Education. The third relates to the Learning Age.
These are important papers. They include proposals relating to,
amongst many other thing: employer-provided training, self-
provided training, the future of FE and HE, the University for
Industry. You can find further information at
http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk
This is a consultation paper and, in keeping with its excellent
policy of electronic awareness, you can send responses by email
direct to the government from
http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/consult/index.htm
When I’ve looked at the proposals in more detail, I shall report
further through LearningWIRE.
Browser tips
————
It might seem obvious, but it’s surprising how many people don’t
think of this. The reason why so many pages take so long to load
onto your screen is because of the size of the graphics, not the
volume of text information. Since it’s often the text which you
want to read and not the graphics to view (unless, of course,
you’re wanting to admire the pictures in the National Gallery),
you can stop the graphics from loading onto your screen by
switching them off. Go to your browser’s Preferences folder, find
the appropriate Display or Content section, and uncheck the
Graphics box. Simple. Your pages will now load many times faster
on the screen.
By the way, if you’re designing your own web pages, it helps to
Always include an Alternative Label for each inserted graphic.
The Alternative Label is what shows up on the page if the reader’s
browser has graphics switched off. By using intelligent
Alternative Label names, the reader can work out which graphics
are clickable images and what they still do!
TrainingZONE
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+++ People + Events + Venues + News + Coaching +
Products + Resources + Links + Views + Directories +
Forums + Build-your-own-website + Libraries + LearningWIRE +
Archives + Newswire + Travel + Publishers +++
+ FREE
++ UK related
+++ Fully searchable
++++ Enter and amend your own information on-line
+++++ Local area search engine guarantees high quality matches
… coming soon
Site Review: Railtrack
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Not the most obvious web site for the training community – but
Incredibly useful. As a green-conscious traveller, I try to use
the train whenever possible. The railway line does pass the end
of our garden and the local station is three minutes walk away.
The whole Railtrack site is an impressive example of clear,
simple, effective design:
http://www.railtrack.co.uk
In a recent poll conducted by Net magazine of around 40 movers and
shakers in the UK internet world, over a quarter said this was
their most useful site. The bit you really want is at
http://www.railtrack.co.uk/travel/index.html
You are presented with a simple form. Type in your start point,
your destination, date of travel and preferred time either for
departure or arrival, and within seconds you get the quickest
recommended route and times together with options for earlier and
later trains. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Worth my monthly
dial-up fee on its own.
I shall never use the dreadful National Rail Enquiry Service
again.
The only improvement would be if you could book tickets on line as
well. My overall ratings are the best yet for any site:
Content ****
Design *****
About Sift
———-
Sift plc is a leading developer of online communities. Based in
Bristol, Sift has developed AccountingWEB for professionals in the
accountancy profession. At the 1997 Online Information Exhibition
at Olympia, Sift were voted European Information Product of the
Year (and also runner up as Internet Product of 1997). You can
visit this site at https://www.accountingweb.co.uk
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Editor: Tim Pickles
Sift plc., 33 Corn Street, Bristol BS1 1HT
Tel:+44 (0)117 930 8881 Fax:+44 (0)117 930 8887
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Tim Pickles ***** Designing professional toolkits
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk ***** The learning community
