I'm letting the cat out of the bag a little early, but I'm just psyched to have Leo Laporte keynoting at DevLearn09. I listen to this WEEK in TECH and MacBreak Weekly every week...without fail......oh, wait...are you scratching your head wondering why the heck Leo Laporte is keynoting an eLearning Tech conference? Yea, that's what I thought.
Before I answer that, let me take you back to DevLearn08 for a moment. Tim O'Reilly was a great keynote and officially ushered in Learning in a Web2.0 World. He pointed out the following: If you want to know about the future of technology, you need to follow the alpha geeks. O'Reilly also talked about how accessible the tools of media creation have become. The best examples lately are the teens (and pre-teens) that are making money creating iPhone apps. But more obvious examples are the millions of blogs, facebook pages, Flickr members, and etsy crafters...and so many others carving their little niche in the Web2.0 world. Leo gets the alpha geeks and embraces the future they have created.
You can check out Leo's bio here. But at the risk of gushing to heavily, I think its safe to say Leo is not only THE tech guy, he is the KING of podcasting...or as he calls it, Netcasting! You can watch Leo record all 13 of his podcasts on his LIVE video stream that generates 25 hours of live content a week. Leo is not afraid to expose the behind the scenes efforts, and frustrations of live broadcasting. The chat room is always buzzing with comments, and Leo is an active participant in the conversations. He makes technology approachable and fun!
New media is absolutely changing our lives. And that means that we MUST understand how it will impact the future of eLearning. There are many people writing about new media but Leo is living new media and pushing the boundaries of publishing in many new ways. He understands better than many that his success revolves around facilitating engaging conversations. By connecting with his audience and encouraging participation Leo is walking the walk of Web2.0.
Its very easy for me to make the leap from what Leo is doing to my career in eLearning. Instructional Designers produce content based on the experience of subject matter experts and deliver it to those who want to learn that content. We are the brokers of knowledge between those that have it and those that need it. And our designs aim to deliver that knowledge in the most effective format utilizing the most efficient technologies. New media technologies not only give us many, many, more tools for our eLearning toolbox, but they are forcing us to critically review and question our old models of instructional design from the industrial age.
As television networks continue to lose viewership, and CD sales plummet, you no doubt understand and have felt the impact of new media. Leo will take us on a journey through the history of media and why new media matters. And he'll entertain us every step of the way. As a followup to the man who coined the term Web2.0, I could think of no one better to help us address the broader issues of new media than Leo Laporte.
(More announcements coming soon...)
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