Gang-of-four proclaim Serious eLearning Manifesto. You can’t be serious?

The ‘Serious eLearning Manifesto’ has been procaimed! Well, four people have decided that a ‘top-down’ approach, where we mere  mortals need to stand by, with baited breath, by signing-up for the ‘revealing’ special webinar on 13 March. Am I alone in thinking that this is all a bit, well, odd? 

Gang-of-four

Let me be clear, I like three of the ‘gang-of-four’ – Michael Allen, Clark Quinn and Wil Thalheimer. All are seasoned veterans with lots of great things to say. I won’t express an opinion on the fourth, Julie Dirksen, as I’ve never heard of her. What I find odd is the idea that we all need to be told by a self-appointed group what’s best for the rest of us. It goes against everything I love about the openess of the web and online learning – the fact that it should be diverse and that if you have something to say – blog it, tweet it, Facebook it and put it on your website. Don't treat us like pupils in a classroom and expect us to turn up at 2pm CST and listen.

Manifesto madness

I, for one, don’t like manifestos. Remember the last one from this forsome? They stink. They tend to be ideological, reflecting the views of the few not the many. They also tend to be fixed, prescriptive and usually don’t last the test of time. E-learning is not high politics, it’s an evolving and fluid landscape with a raft of wonderful tools used by almost everyone on the web: Google, Wikpedia, YouTube, Social Media etc. If it’s the basic modular, self-paced e-learning they want to attack, then hold on. As Bertie Bassett would say, it takes all-sorts. You can point out the weaknesses of certain forms of online learning but this is hardly a catastrophe. If they’re also having a go at the LMS, then think again, as it’s as lively and buoyant as it’s ever been and evolving. The logo maybe says it all - SERIOUSLY is this the future of e-learning design? Smacks of the 'serious' games thing and look where that concept went. I made much the same points six years ago on that concept.
Manifestos galore
It's not as if this is the first. We've had Cathy Moore's Manifesto for L&D Professionsals. I can still remember the truly awful Manifesto for e-learning from bogus Learning Light in the UK. There's the Networked Learning Manifesto from the University of Lancaster, the Educator's e-learning manifesto, even a Feminist manifesto for e-learning. There's the wonderful Manifesto for e-learning in acupuncture. You get my point.

Bullseye!

What I suspect will happen, is that they’ll fire an arrow, draw a chalk circle round it and proclaim ‘Bullseye!’ I’m involved in simulations, adaptive algorithmic learning projects, MOOCs, VOOKs, content exchanges, spaced learning on mobiles, Oculus Rift VR, wearables and see a landscape that is wide and rich. What I don't see as radical is a fixed webinar at a fixed time by a self-selected group. This is regressive not progressive.

Big world

Listen guys, I respect you all, but calm down on the drama and, tell us what you think - asynchronously. I don’t want to have to hang around to listen to a fixed webinar, timed for the US market. Just blog it. And if you do want a ‘manifesto’, at least appoint someone who is not US based. It’s a big world out here. We in Europe are having serious doubts about allowing any data to be held, no matter how virtualised, in the US, as the NSA has managed to ruin the brand.
PS
My guess is that somewhere in here, they're really plugging a book - let's see.