Leadership In Turmoil: the Learning Imperative The main point of this article is that greater leaning is achieved during periods of difficulty or stress. But what I like is the way the author looks at "second-order learning" in difficult learning situations. Three modes of second-order learning are enumerated: return mapping, in which a recently completed project is subjected to intense and disciplined scrutiny; scenario building; and leading change, which involves being forced to confront an intentional disruption. By J.B. Kassarjian, Babson Insight, December 31, 200-31.[Refer]

Moonlighting for an Unaccredited University This Chronicle article leads with a "tsk tsk" attitute but strives for balance in the end as it looks at professors who make a few dollars on the side teaching for unaccredited institutions. "Most Kennedy-Western professors interviewed say the institution's lack of accreditation doesn't concern them. "My job is to educate people, however they choose to do it," says Kambiz Farahmand... "It's someone else's job to legitimize their diploma. Whatever they get from me is good." By Andrea L. Foster, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 31, 200-31.[Refer]

E-learning Companies are Facing Difficulties This is no surprise to OLDaily readers as we ran contrary to the hype of only a few months ago to predict this downturn. The bad news is that it will get worse before it gets better as the e-learning marketplace becomes saturated and all the big contracts have been snapped up. The companies that can successfully make the transition to providing services to smaller institutions and companies will survive the coming "Darwinian process" as they alone will be able to reach new markets. By Ross Kerber, Boston Globe, December 31, 200-31.[Refer]

Recognizing the Champions As much as it pleases me to see Rory McGreal make the list, it seems to me that the focus on e-learning "champions" misses the point. While in mass and popular media there is an endless need to trumpet the top ten this or that, the internet is and always has been, as I believe Douglas Rushkoff put it, created by the chorus, a mass of people working together with no clear leader, no clear 'champion" to trumpet. Put it this way: who built the world wide web? Not Tim Berners-Lee, though he developed the underlying protocol. No, it was the millions of individuals who installed web servers, authored web pages, and in so doing became part of the chorus. Similarly, then: who pioneered e-learning? The champions listed in this article, but for each one I can list another ten equally qualified to join this list. By Elsa Schelin and Gene Smarte, E-Learning Magazine, December 31, 200-31.[Refer]

Journalistic Pivot Points From the "where I intend to go with OLDaily" department: all I need to do to make this work is get my wireless connection at the conference. Then I can recreate this experience: "I was blogging a session on wireless technology, and wrote something about SkyPilot, one of the presenting companies. Duncan Davidson, SkyPilot's CEO, finished his presentation and sat on the podium, reading on his laptop, while other people talked. Then, in the Q&A, he corrected something I'd written in the blog. In other words, he'd caught this in near-real time and had better information (he should). I immediately posted another paragraph, which began, 'I've been corrected....' Whoa. I'm still not entirely sure what happened. But I do know this. My journey in journalism hit a pivot in that moment. Maybe journalism itself hit a pivot point, as pretentious as that sounds." By Dan Gillmor, SiliconValley.Com, December 31, 200-31.[Refer]

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