Best of the week

Here are this week's standout articles. My goal is to find articles you might not see referenced on other learning blogs (unless they came from there originally and they're an important read), in case you read a lot of us.

So they're not really the best of everything...Maybe I should change the title to "Of note this week" or, as we say in the T+D editorial office SSBB (something similar but better). Let me know if you have a suggestion.


Technology

3D Virtual Spaces for Learning and Collaboration. Robin Good's list of advantages of collaborating and learning inside 3D spaces is not to be missed. This posting discusses SmartMeeting (see Try It for my review) and the Wired Second Life article I linked to last week.

E-learning

Delivering e-learning: is the CD dead? A look at this question by Simon Neill of TNA Associates (thanks, e-Learning Centre). The spoiler? It's "wounded but a lot of life left."

Traditional training/business

"How Leaders Build Winning Streaks." In this age of failed and shamed leaders, this article by Harvard Business School professor and overall guru Rosabeth Moss Kanter is important reading. This is an excerpt from her book Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End.

"Work This Way." This article in the Guardian's series on life in 2020 is a fascinating in-depth look at the future of work. The good news: experts predict more employers will realize the importance of developing workers' skills. The bad news: work-life balance will probably not improve much.

Learning Styles Questionnaire. Forty questions test whether a learner is a pragmatist, theorist, activist, or reflector. Results are shown numerically and via graph. Make sure macros are enabled for this to work.

Job aid for soldiers in Iraq. The Kwikpoint company makes "visual language translators" that have a multitude of users, including corporate and military. Boing Boing shows how one set is being used by coalition soldiers in Iraq to tell prisoners what to do.

"Big Boss is Watching." CNet writes about how GPS-enabled cell phones can let companies track the location of workers. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse warns employers that the devices should be used with a strong privacy policy.