Some 150 of Europe's top learning technologies specialists gathered in Sestri Levante on the Italian Riviera in June for the -˜Training in Action' conference. Hosted by Giunti Labs, Europe's leading e- and mobile learning content management solutions provider, the conference explored three main topics: the challenges, threats, and opportunities for corporate learning in the Knowledge Society; the importance of standards; and innovation in the application of learning technologies - through a series of case studies from across Europe.

While the conference focused on case studies, there was also a series of -˜round table' discussions on the ten key topics in European learning technologies:

• Learning communities and social networks
• Introducing skills, competencies, and portfolio-based development in corporate education
• Interoperability standards
• Blending S1000D and SCORM for industrial maintenance and training
• Learning through wearable computers
• Virtual worlds for technical workflow
• Serious games: using edutainment and game-based learning in corporates
• Blending business intelligence, process workflow, search, and data mining with corporate knowledge
• Large LMS/LCMS deployments in worldwide organisations
• Business TV and TV-delivered learning

Fabrizio Cardinali, the co-chair of the European Learning Industry Group (Elig) and CEO of Giunti Labs, opened the conference by advocating the value of social inclusion of less-able and elderly categories in trends related to working as well as the benefits of innovation in learning technologies to better serve them. Cardinali said, "Since everyone in our society has valuable knowledge, skills, and abilities, we shouldn't -˜write off' anyone. This means that we need to make new learning technologies powerful enough to make new, personalised learning opportunities available to all in order for them to develop to their fullest capabilities - and this raises accessibility issues where learning is concerned".

"Many of these issues can be addressed through the application of learning technologies, especially through games, simulations, and virtual worlds. Innovations in learning such as these should help European organisations remain competitive in the world economy despite their ageing and diminishing workforce, increasingly challenged by competition from elsewhere in the world that is qualitatively higher."

Volkswagen, Ikea, Ferrari, Schlumberger, the University of Bremen, Philips Medical Systems, and Ericsson were among the organisations discussing their innovative eLearning solutions, and Pascal Wattiaux, of Disruptive Play and P W Sport Ltd, who is advising the International Olympic Committee and especially those organising the London Olympics of 2012, explained how an Olympics is equivalent to starting a massive organisation from scratch. The London Olympics is expected to employ some 100,000 people, in addition to those involved in creating the Olympic facilities - and each of these people has learning needs.

"eLearning, and particularly the use of serious games and simulations, is an exceptionally efficient and cost-effective way of giving these people the knowledge and skills they need", he said. "And it is only now that the technologies exist to deliver this sort of learning."

Other highlights of the conference included a presentation by Albert Angehrn, the director of the Centre for Advanced Learning Technologies at INSEAD Business School. Speaking about change and innovation in corporate education, he commented, "Learning by playing, through strategic experimentation, is being shown to be the most effective and time-efficient way of learning".

"Up to now, business simulations have concentrated on numbers -the sort of things that appeal to accountants", he added. "We are now seeing the emergence of simulations that concentrate on characters that change their behaviour based on the learner's decisions - and this reflects business practice more accurately than a purely numbers-orientated simulation."

"Games and simulations involve people in collaborative learning. They are increasingly important in helping the corporate world to manage change because they create a shared language and stories, push people to the limits of their capabilities, help organisations to sustain their focus on key issues, and address complex subjects", Angehrn concluded.

Serious games specialist Ron Edwards of Ambient Performance, who led the most popular of the round table discussions, commented, "The Training in Action event was highly valuable and beneficial from a number of viewpoints. In particular, it provided a great opportunity for those who are interested in devising and applying serious games in the corporate world to listen to the experiences of those who are already building and using these games to help achieve corporate goals".

"Our discussions during the round table discussions ranged from the simplest to the most complex of serious games, using a wide range of delivery technologies. For those of us who are students of the use of serious games, the Training in Action event provided invaluable insights into best practice in this genre throughout Europe."

The European Commission's Spyridon Pilos offered further insights into a range of learning technologies being employed throughout Europe. In particular, he outlined a number of new ways in which learning content is being created, understood, and made easier to access. He also gave examples of the use of learning content across European borders. He explained that the emphasis in EC-funded learning technologies research is now on information and communications technologies, having previously been on changes in the learning process and, before that, technology.

"Currently, the main challenge for the EC is to support the shift to user-centred learning solutions that can be adapted to an individual's learning needs", he said. "We also want to reinforce the scientific knowledge base on how individuals learn when that process is mediated via technology. Finally, we also want to strengthen pedagogical and cognitive foundations, as well as technological and social contexts."

Among the projects that the EC has supported are those relating to mobile, broadband, wireless, and interactive-television-delivered learning. Giancarlo Bo, head of Mobile Learning Content Management Technologies at Giunti Labs Research, explained that, thanks to EC-funding, a number of pilot projects using mobile learning technologies - and involving Giunti Labs' technology - had taken place with MBA students at Zurich University, students of first aid at the Open University in the UK, and tourists in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Bo added that a refinement of these mobile learning technologies is the WearIT@Work project, which is due to conclude in December 2008 after 54 months. The project has two main applications - for engineers and those in the medical profession.

"The wearable computers deliver standard SCORM content controlled via the user's eye movements or voice, keeping hands free for just-in-time maintenance and performance support", Bo said. "The key characteristic of this is that the mobile computer is operated at the workspace, allowing the users to use their hands to do their -˜real job' simultaneously while they are consulting the learning materials and performance-support information via the corporate and plant infrastructure."

At the conference, Giunti Labs Research also revealed some innovative extensions to its eLearning content management solution suite, learn eXact, now including GPS and Wi-Fi based geo-positioning of learning content, developed by integrating technologies of partners Microsoft and Cisco and empowering innovative location-based learning scenarios that were branded as -˜Geo Learning'.

The research department of Giunti Labs also presented a new add-on for SMS downloading into Blackberry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile Smartphones and mailers, together with video, rich media, and 3D learning content interoperability within the new stream of virtual collaborative world platforms, such as Forterra™ and Second Life™.


According to Ambient Performance's Edwards, this confirms Giunti Labs' multi-channel learning content authoring, management, and delivery infrastructure as one of the world's leading and most advanced solutions. Giunti Labs Research also showcased its new S100D-SCORM conversion plug-ins, which aroused great interest among the industrial maintenance and decision-support stakeholders who attended the conference.