The ideological fight is over, the battle continues
(Well I do not often use military vocabulary, but I couldn't find any better this time.)

Whereas last year at the microlearning conference there was a big clash between the old and the new, this year the new - elearning 2.0, participatory microlearning, informal learning etc. - sweeped away the old in almost all presentations. This doesn't mean that the old will not play some tricks and will try to resist as long as possible to the change, but it became clear that the old paradigm has no future.

Either the old does adapt or it could be bypassed by platforms not yet considered as learning platforms (mainly the quickly growing 2.0 ones).

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Mobile, especially in emerging markets
The main focus of the conference was still on the PC-Internet, but mobile is getting more ground. Nokia's projects in the emerging markets (even when they are not always predictable as we recently saw with Motorola in Russia) is a good example and also what we are doing at Kaywa.

In a talk I had with Simo from Nokia during a pause, Africa is developing very quickly - and it seems clear now that they all will come over the mobile internet. (So I guess Nicolas Negroponte needs to change his strategy.)
If we want Africa to be not totally cut off, we really have to start thinking mobile. And as Simo confirmed, Africa is hungry for information and education like no one else and they can't understand why the telecoms are only coming now.

The situation in the Philippines, where Simo lives, is also very interesting. Nokia shipped some two-camera phones and thought they will probably not sell that well as they were quite expensive. But the demand for this next-gen phones was just overwhelming. Simo added, that in Manila everyone needs the newest phone, and people send then their old phones to their family in the countryside. This makes very short replacement cycles.

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Media, education: how to cope with reality?

Question:
If the investors are leaving the print media ship (see Warren Buffet), how long will it take that state institutions like schools and universities will react. Whereas privatly owned companies will quickly follow the money, what will happen with subsidized institutions? And what does that mean for democratical states, when the dominant model cannot cope anymore with reality?

In this regard it is significant that George Siemens now works with Google and that the RedHat CEO critizes the current school system not only for not preparing people well for what they will do after school, but also for a lack of sensibilty for global issues, collaboration, other cultures.

Remark / Question:
I showed the Train Simulator PSP game (only available in japanese) and explained that this game let you become a train conductor for real. Not only is the game hyperrealistic (all the trains and routes exist for real), but you learn also all the rules and signs etc. which you need to do the job.

I also spoke about the german police aspirants which play now GTA (unofficial gta blog) before driving for real. And today Polis posted this link about the US army using PlayStation-style consoles for future training.

My question is: if kids are start getting their training this way, what does this mean for schools?