London (UK), February 2009 - (by Bob Little) Surveys are ideal for promoting a product or viewpoint. Among recent surveys published in the UK:

• A study of 1,322 British workers has found that 82 per cent of people lie on behalf of their managers daily; more than half have taken blame for a managerial error, and one in three believes that their boss would be annoyed if they didn't lie.
  
  
  So, while organisations spend time, money and rhetoric on treating customers fairly, this survey appears to show a high level of institutionalised dishonesty. Yet, in condemning workers for their dishonesty and their employers for encouraging it, no one seems to have realised that, for this survey to be reliable, these workers have to be telling the truth. Far from illuminating the moral issue of dishonesty at work, this survey raises more concerns than it settles.
• A survey from the US-based eLearning Guild reveals that the hottest trends in eLearning today are the use of social networks and other collaborative tools, along with the growth of immersive learning simulations and serious games. These technologies, says the Guild, can achieve new levels of learner engagement, collaboration and performance improvement.
  
  
  That seems a fair summary of the state of the eLearning world - at least in the West. However, the key message is that, while technologies come and go, the eLearning professional always has to demonstrate, to a largely sceptical Board, that any of this makes a difference to their organisation's performance.
• A report - 'Virtual Worlds: The internet of Avatars'- predicts that the number of people using PC-based 3D virtual worlds will reach 33m in the US by 2013. It attributes this growth, in part, to the increased use of these technologies for training purposes. UK-based serious games producer, Caspian Learning, believes that these trends are likely to be mirrored in the UK - fuelled by the rise of casual and online gaming which is making it easier for consumer and corporate users to develop and play games.
  
  
  Of course, with the developing horrors of the real world - including terrorism and the severe economic downturn - the option of existing, and therefore learning, within a virtual world is beginning to look increasingly preferable to living in the real one.

For over 20 years, Bob Little has specialised in writing about, and commentating on, corporate learning - especially elearning - and technology-related subjects. His work has been published in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA and Australia.
You can contact Bob.