I was invited at the Microlearning 2007 Conference in Innsbruck. I must say - I liked it VERY much. There were alot of truely interactive and open formats, eg. learning cafes, real discussion workshops and speedgeeging... Great!

I have discussed in Innsbruck with colleagues from the Microlearning Community. It was very international and I really had good contacts and could start NEW networks.

Apart from that - here are some of my more critical reflections:

(1) A little bit I felt sometimes like in the first days of the "e-learning debate" in the e-learning community, where we discussed many things from a primarily technological perspective - and then until today more and more moved towards strategy, organisational change and didactic. Technology is clearly "only" the enabler - important but not dictating. This is shared with the people involved in the microlearning Community, too.

(2) The idea of Micro-**content** seems to me a iluding to the discussion on Learning Objects (read more about THAT here). There has been already a considerable amount of research carried out and concepts discussed which should definitly be taken into account - in the conference this was little lacking behind.

(2) Microlearning focusses on social software and connecting people and on Microcontent (see below). Many specificly pedagogical questions are viewed as important by the colleagues from this community - for example if the use of WIKIS is leading to better results of learning or what are suitable didactical strategies to integrate widgets into learning processes. these questions in my view need high atention. This is form me the truely interesting side of the Microlearning Discussion - to ask how and if we can develop Micro-learning paths and scenarioes. I would like to open a discussion on this.

My preliminary conclusion: great people and good starting debates. Sometimes also some old stuff (in a little bit new bottles). In anycase: Alot of good cooperation potential between the Microlearning Conference and the ''mainstream'' (what is that actualy??) e-learning world. The open discussions are motivating me to go on exploring the cooperation with this community which, in a way, likes to deal with the real innovative technology segment of tool development (widgest).

Here a definition taken from the Microlearning Wiki

Microlearning
(1) … is a term used in the e-learning context for a learner’s short interaction with a learning matter broken down to very small bits of content. At present this term is not clearly defined. Learning processes that have been called “microlearning” can cover a span from some seconds (e.g. in mobile learning) to 15 minutes (learning objects sent as e-mails). There is some relation to older concepts like Microteaching. Of course the notion of microlearning rises the question of adequate Micropedagogy and Microdidactics, as well as the problem of learning itself.

(2) … in a wider sense is a term that can be used to describe the way more and more people are actually doing informal learning and gaining knowledge in Microcontent and Micromedia/Multitasking environments (see Microcosmos), especially those that become increasingly based on Web 2.0 and Wireless Web technologies. In this wider sense the borders between Microlearning and the complementary concept of Microknowledge are blurring.

(3) … is, as Integrated Microlearning (iML), a new didactical concept developed by the RSA Studio eLearning Environments, based on a plain & simple, patent-pending technology (KnowledgePulse) that can be run on all web-based platforms and devices, especially including web-enabled phones.

This short definition (v 1.0) has been proposed on 2005/09/12. Contribute! For more elaborate discussion of the key term see Microlearning discussion, for some links go to Microlearning links. The Microlearning2005 Conference was the first attempt to discuss phenomena, practices and theoretical concepts under this perspectice.

My presentation for the conference