Global Learning Strategy

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mastering new TECHnologies www.devtech.net
Our Journey . . . Step 1 . . . Step 2 . . . Step 3 . . . Step 4 . . . Step 5 . . . Step 6 . . . Step 7
Global Organizations
=
Global Learners
Strategies for connecting a world of
global learners

Introduction
• John 5:1-9: “Do you want to learn?”
– The sick man was focused on a specific
solution
– Jesus offered the complete solution
– The man missed Jesus’ offer
– Is Jesus asking us to look at the larger scale of
how we can become more like Christ and more
effective in ministry?

Use Case Exercise
• I know someone who needs to learn ______
• They are struggling because ____________
• They are trying to use the following method
of learning ________________________
• If they are not successful in gaining this
learning,
____________________________
• I feel __________ in my ability to help
them.

Learning Exercise
• Key learning topics our organizations need
globally:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Disturb us to Dream
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well
pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have
come true because we have dreamed too little,
when we arrive safely because we have sailed
too close to the shore.

Disturb us to Thirst
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of
things we possess, we have lost our thirst for
the waters of life; having fallen in love with
life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and
in our efforts to build a new earth, we have
allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us to Venture
Disturb us, Lord to dare more boldly,
to venture on wider seas where storms will
show your mastery; where losing sight of
land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to
push back the horizons of our hopes; and to
push into the future in
strength, courage, hope, and love.
Sir Frances Drake

Our Journey
• Introduction and Definitions
• Missions Revolution Impacts Learning
• Learning expectations of our audience
• Learning challenges
• 7 Key Steps to a Global Learning Strategy
• Global Learning Models and Examples

Core Assumptions
• Different cultures and personality types learn
differently.
• This is not primarily an instructional design
discussion.
• This is not primarily a technology discussion.
• Any system at the global level must involve a
networked process and a set of tools to manage the
learning.

Global Learning
• A global learning strategy requires some new
considerations:
– Am I thinking about end products or mission critical
content?
– Am I focusing on the event vs. focusing on the
experience?
– Am I invested in a program or invested in the learners?
– Am I controlling my content or empowering many
content sources?
– Am I modeling Western learning styles or
incorporating contextualized learning styles?

Definitions
• Technology-based Learning: Learning that
is managed and distributed using
technology tools but is consumed through a
variety of media.
• Learning Object: A small piece of learning
that teaches a complete concept and is
developed to be mixed with many other
possible combinations of Learning Objects.

Definitions Continued
• Learning Experience: The next generation
of a “course.” The term experience speaks
to the wide variety of input that the learning
may include and the way in which learners
will consume the content.
• Content Developers: Any individual who
helps develop the content that will be used.

Missions Revolution
“The only limits to cyberization are our
networks and our ability to interface
computers with the various parts of the
physical world . . . Driven by a quest for
knowledge and the economics of new
industry formation and efficiency,
cyberization is inevitable.”
Gordon Bell
Gordon, Bell, “The Body Electric,” Communications of the ACM, February 1997

Missions Revolution
“A postmodern organization is one that places
a high premium on knowledge creation and
conversion. One of the ways of dealing with
the problems of uncertainty in both our
context and in the tasks required of us is to
create an environment that values
experimentation, creativity and innovation.”
Richard Tiplady
World of Difference, 2003, pg. 117

The Access Economy
“The shifts from geography to cyberspace, industrial to
cultural capitalism, and ownership to access are going to
force a wholesale rethinking of the social contract . . . In
this new worldview that trades in information and services,
in consciousness and lived experiences, in which the
material gives way to the immaterial and commodifying
time becomes more important than expropriating space, the
conventional notions of property relations and markets,
which came to define the industrial way of life, become
increasingly less relevant.”
Jeremy Rifkin
The Age of Access, 2000, pg. 14-15

Access??
Content is the new King
. . . but . . .
Distribution is the Elderly Patriarch.
The key to success lies in successful
distribution not simply having content.

Learning Expectations
• Learning is Just In Time vs. Just In Case.
• Learning is a core part of what I will get out
of my work – a right not a privilege.
• Learning is to be accessed in my preferred
format and time.
• Learning cannot take away from my busy
ministry life.

Learning Challenges
• Global Audience
• Unique Needs
• Common Core Vision and Info that an Org
wants to communicate
• Learning must be managed
• Content must flow into the system
• Learners must be motivated to make time

Considering New Models
“Surely every medicine is an innovation; and
he that will not apply new remedies, must
expect new evils; for time is the greatest
innovator; and if time of course alter things
to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall
not alter them to the better, what shall be
the end?”
Sir Francis Bacon, Of Innovation

Change Factors
• People expect customized solutions.
• Content can be customized, managed,
tracked and delivered in large quantities.
• Learners work globally.
• Organizations are using funds more
strategically.

Steps to a Global Learning Strategy
• There are 7 key steps that will help you to
move forward from wherever you happen to
be currently.
• A strategy should not preclude any
particular training methodology or process
solution.
• We must look at what we have and where
we want to go.

Step 1
• Confirm the your organizational
commitment:
• Is your organization committed at the:
– Core Value Level
– Admin Asset Level
– Outsource Dependent Level
– No Buy-in Level

Step 2
• Invest in understanding how your people
learn:
– What are the learning styles?
– What are the cultural factors?
– What are the learning motivations?
– What are the learning outcomes?
– What are the format/media preferences for
learning?

Step 3
• Develop a Learning Context:
– Helps define the organizational learning
imperatives.
– Provides content developers with guidelines.
– Provides Litmus Test for learning partnerships
and investment decisions.

A New Context
“In education, its (information technology) impact will be
greater. However, attempts to put ordinary college courses
on the Internet are a mistake. Marshall McLuhan was
correct. The medium not only controls how things are
communicated, but what things are communicated. On the
Web, you must do it differently . . . In a college course, the
college provides the context. In that on-line course you
turn on at home, the course must provide the background,
the context, the references.”
Peter Drucker
(Managing in the Next Society, Drucker, pg. 31, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2002)

Context??
• Every organization will have a unique
context for learning.
• Within that context you find:
– Organizational culture
– Mission/vision impact
– Cultural contextualization issues
– Theological and ministry preferences

Document It!
• Your context must be documented and
available if you are going to build a
foundation of learning that will support
your missional values.
• Your context will help provide a guideline
for all learning decisions (software, content
providers, topics, media formats, etc.)

Sample Context Points
• X Org learning will be developed to be done individually instead of in
a group context. However, the learning must take into account the
consultation with X Org Staff or with personnel staff.
• The fifth is the concept of distributed collaboration between like-
minded learners. We must help the X Org family to realize that the
learning groups and their learning support systems are not necessarily
local. The people that they should look to for participation in the
learning process should come from the global family.

Sample Context Points
• X Org learning must contain big picture snapshots, providing rationale
or importance of the learning objective, before focusing on the
learning content. This provides continuity and perspective to people
surrounded by incredible detail and involved in extremely focused
effort.
• The learning must happen in a multi-cultural, universal English
environment. The learning objects must remain outside of a western,
North American mindset and must relate to a wide variety of cultures
and perspectives.

Step 4
• Do a Learning Inventory in your
organization:
– What learning exists currently?
– What needs to be developed to effectively meet
the learning needs of your people?
– What tools do you need/want to manage and
deliver the learning globally?

Step 5
• Develop a prototype (Rapid Prototype
Development):
– Test your learning context
– Gain momentum and tackle greatest learning
need
– Begin your learning strategy with a flagship
concept
– Test possible technology tools

Step 6
• Define Strategy and Requirements
– Utilize reaction to prototype to solidify and
finalize your learning strategy.
– Decide on learning formats and the tools you
will use to manage and delivery learning.
– Make final changes to your Learning Context.

Step 7
• Develop your documentation and RFP
– Specify functionality set
– Develop easy to understand Use Cases
– Develop a clear startup budget
– Develop a clear annual program budget
– Understand the different service models:
• Outsourcing
• ASP
• Own Your Own

Step 7 Cont.
• Is the business model in place?
• Do your users have a “felt need” associated
with your learning opportunity?
• Is the content ready?
• Do you have the partners in place to
leverage technology with your learning?

Three Key Learning Roles

Internal Marketing
• The launch/marketing/change management
strategies are critical to adoption and
success.
– Utilizing Innovators
– Equipping Early Majority to educate the Late
Majority

Resources
• General Resources
– www.tmreview.com
– www.brandon-hall.com
– www.astd.org
• Christian Examples of Learning Tools
– www.christiancourses.com
– www.strategicnetwork.org
– www.awm.org

A Solution to Consider

Content is Core
• XML Foundation for content is critical to
repurposing for future use.

Content Design is Critical
• 2-5 minute Learning Objects
• Customizable learning experiences
• Balance between user control and teacher control
• RLO: Reusable Learning Objects
• RIO: Reusable Information Objects
• Developed By Internet Learning Solutions Group, Cisco
Systems, Inc. – Chuck Barritt, 2001
• http://business.cisco.com/prod/tree.taf
%3Fasset_id=44748&public_view=true&kbns=1.html

Contact Information
Jon Hirst
VP of Strategic Development
Devtech
Phone: 630-260-5114
Fax: 630-260-5124
Email: jonhirst@devtech.net
Web: www.devtech.net

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