Stephen W. WattsNorthcentral University

“If we focus too much on the technology itself and not enough on how well it is used, we will continue to fall short. But if we neglect the power of the internet, we will never get off the ground” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. xv).

“Learning is the process by which people acquire new skills or knowledge for the purpose of enhancing their performance” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 4)

“Training is the way instruction is conveyed; it supports learning, which is our internal way of processing information into knowledge” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 4).

“The only thing that gives an organization a competitive edge – the only thing that is sustainable - is what it knows, how it uses what it knows, and how fast it can know something new” (Prusak, 1997, p. 6).

“E-Learning provides an opportunity for us to broaden [our] perspective. . . . Its growing diversity, beyond courseware and instruction, to generating and disseminating information and directly supporting performance. Providing access to information that contains the collective wisdom of the company can be a powerful adjunct to training” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 11).

(Concerning those who see learning differently)

“They look at improved business performance as the driver of what they do, and thus are more comfortable with new, noninstructional approaches to learning as legitimate growth areas for CKOs, CLOs, training departments, and training professionals” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 17).

“The test then, is to imagine moving back to a more constrained medium. If you are successful in moving backward, you have been unsuccessful in moving forward” (Fraser, 1999, para. 19).

“If we value the information we are seeking enough to find it and understand it, i.e., turn it into knowledge, it may not be training, but it is learning” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 65).

“The paradox of our times is that we are inundated by information yet starved for knowledge” (Brody, 1997, para. 15).

“In most corporations it doesn’t really matter if something is good (in in this case learned), it only matters if the new thing (or learning) can be successfully applied to business objectives” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 113).

“What we must remember is that this new information technology is only the pipeline and storage system for knowledge exchange. It does not create knowledge and cannot guarantee or even promote knowledge generation or knowledge sharing in a corporate culture that doesn’t favor those activities” (Davenport & Prusak, 1998, p. 18).

“Organizations that are truly ‘learning organizations’ quickly move beyond the ‘where’ and the ‘how’ of learning, concentrating instead on ingraining it into the work culture” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 180).

“If people take the initiative to learn new skills that can be directly applied to improve performance in a demanding business environment, isn’t that effort worth recognition, maybe even monetary recognition? (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 187).

A Change management plan “is about moving an organization toward its goals by improving the performance, productivity, speed, flexibility, and motivation of the workforce, and about building the capabilities of business leaders to lead sustainable change” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 200).

“Today, no business can afford to have high-quality learning programs that take too long to deploy, aren’t available at the moment of need, or cost so much to deliver that they become unaffordable” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 214).

“With the interactivity of the Internet, we get the equivalent of a one-to-one teacher-student ratio. The means are finally at hand to improve productivity in education” (Michaels & Smillie, 2000, p. 88).

“Like the best businesses, the best training organizations are those that can look ahead, see what the critical needs will be, and be ready with an offer that meets those needs” (Rosenberg, 2001, p. 234).

References:Brody, W. R. (1997, February 24). Johns Hopkins Presidential Investiture.

Unpublished manuscript, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.

Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (1998). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Boston, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Fraser, A. B. (1999). Colleges should tap the pedagogical potential of the World-Wide Web. Chronicle of Higher Education, 48, p. B8 [Opinion & Arts Section]. Retrieved from http://fraser.cc/Talks/Chronicle.html

Michaels, J. W., & Smillie, D. (2000, May 15). Putting more now into knowledge. Forbes, p. 88.

Prusak, L. (1997). Knowledge in organizations: Resources for the knowledge-based economy. Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Rosenberg, M. J. (2001). E-learning: Strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.