Training Industry Quarterly - Winter 2011 - (Page 42)

CLOSING ARGUMENTS | TIM SOSBE WE CAN SEE FARTHER IN THE FUTURE THAN EVER BEFORE. U FOCUSING ON THE FUTURE never seen. You can move massive amounts of data outside of Earth’s gravity, and back again. Reflect a moment on where we’ve been, and where we are. Now, think about what’s next. Even if you can’t envision things you haven’t yet seen, it feeds the imagination to try. If futuristic technology is here now, what will the future hold? I’m reminded of Arthur C. Clarke’s famous quote: “Every sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Think about it. What would your great-great grandmother have thought of searchable video? Would a Depression-era farmer have understood connecting to the cloud? If Romeo tweeted his love for Juliet, would their families have informally learned of the relationship? Speaking of Shakespeare, these thoughts are certainly not new. Way back in the days of pantaloons, Shakespeare called the future “the undiscovered country,” a perfectly apt metaphor. Web 2.0 is up and running, and Web. 3.0 is waiting in the wings. The iPad is raising eyebrows. The LMS has come, and some say it’ll go. No matter how you slice it, we’re about to chart a new course into that mysterious land. Visionary thinkers like Lisa will help focus us in the right directions. “Oh the places you’ll go,” Dr. Seuss wrote. He wasn’t specific, but he was right. Tim Sosbe is editorial director of Training Industry Quarterly and general manager of webinars for Training Industry, Inc. You can e-mail Tim. nless you prefer to read magazines in an unconventional manner, I’ll assume that since you’ve reached this final page you’ve by now noticed that this issue of TrainingIndustry Quarterly features a collection of new columnists. We’re starting our fourth year of publication with some new faces and new voices to share some new insights and ideas with you. I know you’ll get the chance to “meet” them here and in future issues. That said, I’m going to turn the spotlight a bit on one of our new columns, Learning 2020, by Lisa Bodell, a futurist focusing on the next generation of learning. I’m fascinated by the work of futurists: They don’t need tea leaves or crystal balls to predict what lies ahead, instead gazing into the future based on logic, experience and education. With that in mind, you could argue the futurist embodies the spirit of workforce development. I’m in awe of this, because it’s a skill I don’t possess. From my perspective, Einstein was right: Time is relative. Consider this: Whether you’re fresh out of college or closing in on retirement, your look back goes farther every year, an ever-receding target. But the look ahead, almost paradoxically, gets farther out too. Even as we near our professional finish lines, we can see farther in the future than ever before, much farther, usually, than our race will carry us. Nowhere are these changes more obvious than in the world of technology. I don’t have to tell you about the professional changes we’ve already seen. Learning management systems can collate global data in matters of minutes. You can collaborate virtually with teammates you’ve 42 TrainingIndustry Quarterly, Winter 2011 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Quarterly - Winter 2011

Training Industry Quarterly - Winter 2011
Element K
From Where I Sit: Your 2011 Action Plan
Table of Contents
Ad Index
Training Industry Top 20
At the Editor's Desk: Becoming Enablers
Raytheon Professional Services
Performance & Productivity: The Power of Conversations
Altus
Learning Technologies: Paving Cow Paths for Dinosaurs?
KnowledgePool
Technical Training: Talent Management & Technical Training
Partnering for Performance Conference
Learning 2020: Thinking about the Future of Learning
Cornerstone On Demand
Cover Report: Proving Training's Value: Linking Training to Business Outcomes
The Training Associates
Tactics Feature: 7 Solutions for Workforce Training
Harvard Business Publishing
Strategies Feature: Onboarding: A Driving Force for Employee Engagement
Hemsley Fraser
Solutions Feature: Making Informal Learning Real
Training Industry Quarterly
MicroTek
CaseBook: Habitat for Humanity: Training Under Construction
Tracking Trends: The Big Shift
Closing Arguments: Focusing on the Future
Delta College Corporate Services

Training Industry Quarterly - Winter 2011