CrossKnowledge

The rise of technology and the development of the internet over the past 20 years has changed everything. They have changed the way we communicate and interact, the way we transact our business, and the way we learn and develop, to enhance both our personal and professional lives.

Having ubiquitous information at one’s fingertips alters fundamentally the way we learn and perform. Simply put, it means that knowledge alone is no longer power. Access to knowledge – and the ability to turn that knowledge into action and decisions – has become the new power.

In business, information and knowledge is used to drive critical decisions and create productive actions. The quality of these actions is dependent on the relevance and currency of the information. In our new "internet time" world, the only way to ensure productivity is to find information when we need it, and act rapidly. "Just-in-time", rather than "just-in-case", needs to be the new mantra. The new priority is to develop agile minds of resourceful individuals who can locate and master the right skill sets or the knowledge needed to support action, not simply to memorise learning content.

Today’s "new frontier" requires the adoption of fresh approaches to develop these agile minds. Among these approaches is “experiential learning”- hands-on personalised practice with live internet-based systems and scenario-based virtual learning environments.

Charles Jennings is the CEO of Duntroon Associates, a UK-based Learning and Human Capital consultancy firm Charles was, until the end of 2008, Chief Learning Officer at Thomson Reuters, the World's largest Global multimedia information company. Charles has more than 20 years' experience in developing, deploying and using a wide range of technology enabled learning solutions. This former Professor of Electronic Communication at Southampton Business School is no stranger to the training world and has an impeccable record of developing and implementing technology-based learning solutions spanning 21 years. He has held positions with Dow Jones as a director of Strategic Technology and, before joining Thomson Reuters in 2001, was director of the Online Courseware Factory.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ in Charles Jennings’ world. ‘Everyone learns in a different way,’ he says. ‘Some prefer to learn alone, others in collaborative teams. Some people prefer to learn in little chunks, others in big blocks. Some like to develop their own unique approaches to learning and a few feel really swamped by it all.’ His career also includes roles as head of the UK National Center for the development of network-based learning, as an academic working in learning innovation and as a Professor at Southampton Business School in the UK. In 2008 he was honored with the UK World of Learning ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Learning Industry’ award in recognition of his work on performance improvement and informal learning.