The future of web-based learning.

It's fall and school is back in session. This is a time of year that parents love and children dread. As I was walking through the classrooms talking to the teachers at my children's school I was impressed by the level of technology that they were using in the class. The classrooms have SMART boards and ceiling mounted projectors. The students are more familiar with computers and PowerPoint than some professionals I know. Gone are the days of blackboards and chalk, and overhead projectors (most kids don't even know what these are).
These observations then got me to thinking about the future of training and specifically web-based training. These kids who will one day be the employees that I'll be designing web-based training for. What will they be expecting? What will be the standards? How will training be delivered? There are many questions rattling around in my head but they all have a common theme of amazement at the technological savvy of these kids (our future employees) who seem to have an ingrained understanding of technology without it even being explained to them. If you doubt this just give a 9 year old a cell phone and see how long it takes them to figure out how to change the ringer, alarms, and any other feature of the phone.
This is the future (not necessarily distant) audience that we'll have to engage with our programs. I'm curious and excited to see what skills I'll need to learn to do that. We know about mLearning, eLearning, Web 2.0, etc. what will we know about and use everyday 5 years from now? That's one of the reasons I love what I do, it's never a dull moment and I'm constantly learning something new.