Technology is neat. Technology is fun. Technology is engaging. Technology is seductive. Technology is…! You get the idea. But, for those of us in the learning business, technology is not the end. Learning is the end… and the beginning.

When we at OUWB start to architect a new learning experience design, we exercise a strict discipline. We start by consciously defining the targeted learning outcomes. Then we apply a well-defined learning philosophy (which we are willing to share with any of you who might have an interest) as we design the experience.

We then turn to technology. How can we use technology to increase access – overcome the boundaries of time and space? How can we use technology to scale the experience - make it available to more people more efficiently at a lower cost? How can we use technology to more effectively engage the learner in the experience? Most importantly, how can we use technology to enrich the learning experience, to enable experiences not possible in a traditional face-to-face learning environment?

I don’t mean to minimize the importance of continuously exploring new technologies. We constantly troll for them, fantasize about them, imagineer how they might be used to make learning more effective, experiment with them in potential new architectures. But we do not jump into a new technology just because it’s new. And we don’t make the mistake replicating the same tired old learning philosophies in new technological environments (no matter how many faculty want us to podcast their lectures!).

We are not in the technology business, we are in the learning business. And while technology is central to all that we do, technology is not the most important feature. For us, to paraphrase James Carvel, “It’s the LEARNING stupid!”

While we are unbounded, we start by being grounded,
John Stinson