BlackCT merger thoughts at FutureU

Gail and Terry at FutureU weigh in with some predictions. I agree with all of their points except this:

Schools may begin to take a greater interest in faculty training that is applicable across platforms. We’ve heard it time and again in FutureU train-the-trainer workshops. Faculty members eager to get started with their first online course will ask us: “Can’t you just teach us which buttons to push?” So, despite our strong recommendations to the contrary, they build a deep skill level in a platform that may soon be gone with the wind. We predict that the impact of this merger will be enough to convince a lot more schools that they should provide basic HTML training and start planning to “chunk” content into reusable learning objects that are compatible with any standards-compliant system (SCORM, AICC, ADA, etc.).

While schools may be interested in cross-platform skills, individual instructors will remain reluctant to expand their skillsets beyond their content specialities. Rather, look for schools to realize that they need dedicated specialists who understand both the educational process and the technology. (Being one of those kinds of people, I realize that this is a self-serving prediction.)