Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/94708
HRO Today Forum Europe Learning Realities A look at real problems—with new solutions. By Piers Lea Learning technologies are coming of age at last, and where they have been deployed strategically, we are seeing some amazing results. Working with the European Learning Industry Group (where I chair the market place group) we have compiled a top 10 of results- based stories where the bottom line has been affected, which will be released soon. These are truly impressive and derive from organisations seeing learning technology as part of a well-designed and strategic blend—not classroom versus "e," not one method versus another, but the optimal combination to suit different situations. But to be able to deliver blends, you have to have the right strategic structure in place. We call this a learning architecture. If you like, it's the blueprint for how your organisation learns in the most efficient and effective way. We believe that the ability and the propensity to think architecturally about learning represents a significant shift in the way it is being conceptualised and planned within organisations. We have observed this shift in action. What is a learning architecture? Put simply, a learning architecture is a design for learning to meet a particular business goal in a particular situation. It's good to have a simple definition. But the simplicity of this definition perhaps underplays the complexity that learning and development professionals have to deal with in today's networked world of multichannel, multimedia communications, and changed learner expectations. They are faced with a plethora of learning tools and modalities both old and new, with no clear rules or established practise to indicate how best to combine them. It is, of course, both a creative and technical process and the challenge is to help clients across all aspects—to deliver the optimal result. One new channel that we believe will shift the way we view "learning using technology" has now reached an exciting point. The New Mobility We see mobile as needing its own strategy. More than 76 per cent of the 600 companies surveyed in 2011 by Towards Maturity said they planned to implement mobile learning in the next two years. A sneak preview of this autumn's survey shows an increased trend towards apps and mobile (to be discussed more in Towards Maturity's report out on November 22: for latest news go to www.towardsmaturity. org/2012benchmark). [18] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | FALL 2012