* New ways of training and going for job interviews
You may enjoy your iPod for “downtime” activities, such as catching up with the news on your commute or playing upbeat music while you’re out for a run, and you may enjoy visiting Second Life as a way to live as your alter ego. But would you consider using your iPod as a learning tool or going to Second Life for a job interview?
Training providers Vistacast and Makau launched vLearning iPod Training System earlier this month to enable course developers and training administrators to put full courses on the iPod. Learners can watch video content, take quizzes and report results to a learning management system for measurement and accreditation, say the companies.
While enterprise training via the iPod is nothing new, say the companies, enabling training providers to measure outcomes and performance levels among all of their employees is a first.
The system features a software module based on the administration server interfacing to a company’s learning management system and another running with iTunes on the student’s PC.
The press release announcing the technology quotes Alan Langford, network manager for JCPenney, as saying: “Sales associates will be able to receive training that will be loaded into the iPod by the vLearning iPod Training System. IPod training will enable associates to take courses at the point-of-sale while tracking their metrics, which upon synchronization will provide reports to the administrator.”
Don’t know about you, but the thought of watching a feature-length movie on my iPod gives me a headache (not to mention the drain on battery life). I’m not sure of taking training on an iPod though. The potential for interaction with the training software would seem prohibitive when using an iPod.
I’ve not played in Second Life, so I don’t know the ins and outs of it. But a press release from Verizon piqued my interest. Last week it was one of six companies participating in “Network in World,” an online job fair in Second Life. Verizon recruiters met online with job seekers who had submitted their resumes ahead of time and had been invited to an interview. Job seekers were also able to submit their resumes online for Verizon jobs ranging from video hub and network engineer, project manager, network manager and user interface/human computer interaction designers.
“These virtual encounters could lead to a follow-up phone call or an in-person interview,” read the Verizon press release.
This sounds like a useful way of contacting prospective employers. It’s a good way to interact with hiring managers and get your questions answered in real-time – if you could stand doing business through avatars. It could be worth keeping a track of Second Life to see if there are similar job fairs coming up.
