“Learning in a Web 2.0 World” was the theme of DevLearn 2008 Conference and Expo sponsored by the e-Learning Guild. Wikis, blogs, tweets, mobile learning and serious gaming were several of the topics covered at the conference. The Iona Group’s Chad Udell and John Feser attended this year’s event in San Jose, California from November 10 – 14.
The conference began on Monday, November 10th with the Adobe Learning Summit. This one day event provided attendees with the opportunity to see some of Adobe’s latest products and learn how they can be used to produce effective tools for learning. On Tuesday, the Guild’s preconference workshops and symposia were offered with topics ranging from Measuring eLearning Success, to Mobile Learning and Immersive Learning Simulations. The main conference went from Wednesday through Friday. Each day featured a key note speaker. Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO of O’Reilly media discussed innovation and the Web 2.0 phenomenon on Wednesday. On Thursday, Dan Roam, Founder of Digital Roam, Inc. discussed using simple pictures as a way to explain and solve complex problems. Dr. John Medina, author and developmental molecular biologist rounded out the conference on Friday by discussing his research into how the brain works and the implications for developing effective learning.
While the theme of the conference focused on Web 2.0 technologies, a wide variety of eLearning topics were covered in the more than 125 various break-out that were offered during the three days. The conference was well designed and catered to everyone from the experienced instructional designers to those just beginning to explore the power of eLearning for their organizations.
For The Iona Group, a highlight of the conference was DemoFest. This event provided DevLearn Conference participants with an opportunity to showcase their own eLearning work. Chad and John participated in the event by demoing and discussing the International Society of Arboriculture’s Introduction to Arboriculture set of 10 eLearning modules. Iona developed the suite of ISA learning modules over the past 3 years.
The event proved to be a great learning experience as well as a great forum for networking and meeting new people all focused on producing and delivering great learning solutions. Iona came away with a much stronger understanding of the current state of learning and as importantly, where effective, low cost learning is headed in the future.
