I feel as if I’ve been napping.

• The SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) HR Magazine for September ’07 [the August issue is online now] has a front-page article on China. The article notes that HR professionals in China are challenged in finding, training, and retaining skilled workers. Skills lacking are described as language (to work in multinational companies), basic education and interpersonal skills, and attitudes toward teamwork and flexible hours. This doesn’t seem too different than other parts of the world. It’s the whole talent management thing. Of interest to me was that Cisco’s Network Academy in China has 22,000 enrolled at any time – much more than they need to hire. Just yells proactive.
• Research done by Ya-Ting Teng, Curtis Bonk, and others on his blended learning research team for our [plug alert] Blended Learning report suggests strategic planning for blended learning will be a lucrative area for consultants. Their research indicated 30% of respondants from China didn’t know what blended learning was despite plans for growth in that area. It’s a problem in search of a solution.
• Several students in the program I’m in at school are from China. I’m excited about learning more about their experiences, culture, and research and like the fact that my background and experiences are so different.
• Nokia is hosting a mobile Chinese learning platform for students to teach English language and test preparation using sound bytes.
• My daughter was one of six children selected to learn Chinese in sixth grade through a department of education (US) educational grant. It’s a distance learning program. No French or Spanish for her.
• Springboard Research has said the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market in Asia (excluding Japan) increased 92.5 percent in 2006 to reach a market size of US $154 million, and will grow 83 percent in 2007. Via Tekrati.
• E-learning market research (2005-2009) by IDC highlights the need to integrate elearning with the respective IT solutions, and the benefits vendors would gain from the total value-based selling approach. This support reports of growth in the SaaS market.
• Tim Wang’s eLearning blog wrote about the “Mobile English Platform” for delivering multimedia language training in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. As well, teachers are communicating with parents using blogs.

All this, coming at me in a short period of time. Random I know, but I’ve stopped hitting the snooze on the alarm clock.

For Blog Day I’m highlighting five blogs that are new to me and that contain a good deal of information about living and learning in China. All are in English.

Tim Wang blogs about the Chinese e-learning market. His blog is loaded with resources and worth checking out.

Gabrielle Cook, a 25-year old American is teaching English in China along with Phil (NLN and also a teacher) blog “to educate others who may choose to follow in our footsteps.” Mysterious and Misplaced Logic of a Maniac Gone Awry.

Andrew Lih is currently researching a book about Wikipedia and online collaboration. He writes about his experiences in China.

China Web 2.0 Review tracks – you guessed it – Web 2.0 development. Interesting reading about yoho.cn, a social network for young people, and NovoKing, a 3D virtual world.

Lyn Jeffrey, Nan Yang and Jason Li at Virtual China explore virtual experiences and environments in and about China (the topic is the primary research area for the Institute for the Future’s Asia focus Program).

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