Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Standardized, low-cost, just in time language training is not enough!



An interview with Bob Dignen by Ian McMaster [excerpt]
"Learning to Collaborate," in Business Spotlight, 1/2013 (January-February), pp. 40-43.

[Ian McMaster]"Another paradox is on the training side, between the increasingly complex needs of learners and the pressures from purchasing departments for standardized training."

[Bob Dignen] "Exactly. Companies want standardized, low-cost, webbased global solutions.

"They are buying simpler versions of business English training at a time when a more complex, more sophisticated variant is needed. And I’m also not convinced about the idea of just-in-time training.

When you’re talking about deeper behavioural change, I don’t think you achieve it by looking at your mobile on the train, or visiting a website or getting a word per day. These are complementary at best, but certainly no substitute for the more sophisticated training that I think is required.

"Technology has got a real place in keeping up motivation in language and communication learning. But the problem is it’s being seen as a substitute, and that’s the major error that companies are making.

"But maybe as technological costs fall, we will see an ability to deliver sophisticated content in an engaging way, rather than simple content in a rather unimaginative way, which is where I feel we are at the moment with a lot of the products."

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