Greetings!

In this Issue:

• Content is King, Courses Are Castles
• Emerging Training Technologies Webinar, October 11th
• The Quest: A Knowledge Parable

As trainers and training developers we have all heard the saying that content is king. What this means in simple terms is that you cannot have training without content. Content serves as the foundation for all training. But if content is king, why don't organizations simply write a book or publish some web pages and ask employees to read the material and take a test afterwards? The reason is that content by itself does not result in learning. The goal of training is to facilitate learning, which in turn can boost performance, motivation and achievement. Organizations promote training because they want employees that are high performing, motivated and achieve business goals... Learn more

Social technologies will have a growing impact on how we disseminate knowledge in our organizations. The growing popularity of Podcasting, youtube and Wiki are changing how we view the roles of trainer and trainee. Join Dr. Parks, October 11th, 10 am Pacific as he examines emerging training technologies from the perspective of content, design, management and collaboration. Discuss how you too can leverage emerging technologies to more effectively disseminate organizational knowledge.... Learn more

And now the young lad rubbed the tarnished gold lamp, the last of the 'treasures' he had bought from the sightless old peddler at the bazaar. His bag included a few orange spotted primrose petals, three glass marbles, a few half-burned pieces of incense and the lamp, which he rubbed in an attempt to reveal a barely discernible inscription: 'What is invisible and untouchable, but makes people happy and grows?' Unfortunately the answer to the question had rubbed off. He thought perhaps a genie would appear and answer the riddle, but the rubbing produced only a sore finger and no magical chimera. As he wandered through the bazaar he chanced upon a lamp shop. Quietly he entered. He carefully removed the gold lamp from his bag and dropped it on the counter with a thump. "Excuse me," he asked the old shopkeeper behind the counter. "I was wondering if you could tell me if this lamp works and what the inscription means." Examining the lamp, the old man smiled and replied, "why yes, it appears to be functional but see here"… He pointed at the wick with his bony finger. "This wick is small and will not cast as bright a light as our new lamps. Perhaps you would like to trade it in?" he asked. "As to the inscription, I think you're wasting your time"... Learn more