Metatags are meta-crap?

Are our efforts at creating meta-data standards for e-learning nothing more than wasted time? Cory Doctorow has written an article that is informative, thought provoking, and very entertaining. In it he identifies seven problems with efforts towards creating acceptable standards using XML including:

1) People lie
2) People are lazy
3) People are stupid
4) Mission Impossible: knowing thyself
5) Schemas aren't neutral
6) Metrics influence results
7) There is more than one way to describe something

To learn what's behind these seven problems, and Cory's final recommendations, click below:
Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw men of the meta-utopia

Enough Already! Getting off the ROI Bandwagon

First came all the articles, then came the resurgence of books, and now I even see that an entire conference is being devoted to the ROI of training. Obviously we're seeing a huge backlash against the unrestrained orgy of IT spending of the late 1990's, and against previous e-learning initiatives that fell short of expectations.

Personally, I think its all hype and I've had enough. Read my unedited article that first appeared in CLO, Chief Learning Officer magazine.
* Three problems with ROI
* Making the C.A.S.E. for e-Learning

Article: Enough Already! Getting off the ROI bandwagon

New Glossary Words

Special thanks to reader GA Redding who contributed definitions for Certification, Conformance, and Compliance. Click here to access the e-LearningGuru.com glossary.

Should any of your colleagues learn more about building an e-learning business case or meta-tag standards? If so, please forward this e-mail to them and help build the Guru community.

Here's to living and learning,

-- Kevin

Kevin Kruse is the e-learning columnist for CLO, Chief Learning Officer magazine, author of Technology-based Training (Jossey-Bass), and Principal with Kenexa. He can be reached at kkruse@e-learningguru.com.

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