One of the sectors being pushed by the McKenna government in the mid 1990s was online learning (web-based learning, eLearning, e-Learning, tele-education, etc. – one of the problems was the lack of a consistent label).
At that time, there was an innovative guy at the head of TeleEducation New Brunswick named Rory McGreal. Mr. McGreal, I am told, left New Brunswick in disgust after the Tory government showed almost no interest in making New Brunswick a hotbed for eLearning.
Now he is heading up the research department of Canada’s best online university, Athabasca in Alberta.
Now, today, the last vestiges of the e-Learning industry, LearnNB, is trying to get into the act:
Pushing e-learning in N.B. – ‘lead or languish’
New report urges government to help grow the industry
Stairs Simon Cheung
Telegraph-Journal
It’s time to start thinking about the learning industry, according to Gary Stairs. And he’s getting the ball rolling with a new report from LearnNB, released on Wednesday.”It’s a foresight conversation,” said Mr. Stairs, the president of LearnNB, the New Brunswick chapter of the Canadian Society for Training & Development.
“We felt this kind of discussion wasn’t going on in the province.”The report, titled New Brunswick 2015: Lead or Languish, was based on a two-day event where representatives from the province’s public school system, post-secondary institutions, corporate training departments, and research and development industry discussed key elements of the learning industry. They then developed several alternative scenarios for the future of the sector.
Now, if Bernie and the boys were not interested in growing the eLearning sector early in their mandate when the province’s top corporate players were dropping like flies (BKM, JOT, E-Com, LearnStream, etc.), what in the world would make LearnNB think that they would be interested now?
Too little, too late, gang.
Rory is a stark example of the fact that not all of the people moving to Alberta are going to dig up tar sand. One of the top minds in eLearning. Gone.