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Trends and Forecasts
The Internet has changed our lives - from the way we
work to the way we play. Today, we will see how it transforms
the way we learn.
According to Merrill Lynch, the knowledge economy is
founded on brainpower, ideas and entrepreneurship. While
technology is the driver of the new economy, though
some are skeptical about this, fuelling it is the human
capital, also known as the knowledge worker.
The knowledge economy is all about people. The key
to success in the new economy is how companies obtain,
train and retrain these knowledge workers.
Riding high on the knowledge curve, law associations
around the world are placing great importance on continuing
learning education. In jurisdictions like Australia,
the US, Canada and Hong Kong to name a few, there are
various professional development schemes - many of them
mandatory - to maintain the high quality of legal services.
These development programmes also enhance the competitiveness
of their legal professions in the global market.
Supporting these developments, online or eLearning
initiatives have been introduced. And Internet savvy
lawyers who are already accustomed to doing online research,
have taken to these portals like fish to water.
In Australia, for instance, The College of Law Alliance
(New South Wales) initially assessed that 40 % of its
students would study by way of eLearning. As of 2001,
the total stood at 82%.
IDA Singapore projects the Singapore market for eLearning
products and services to be worth US$62 million by 2005,
almost a seven-fold increase from last year's US$9 million.
With such high growth prediction in all sectors in
Singapore and the significant adoption rates of Internet
use in Singapore homes, it is inevitable that eLearning
will soon become part and parcel of our professional
and personal lives.
The foresight of Mr Palakrishnan, the President of
the Law Society of Singapore, and the members of his
Council and CLE Committee in embarking on an eLearning
journey, thus marks a good and important milestone.
Good because Singapore can take a lead in Asia to blaze
a trail in innovative use of technology-enabled learning.
Important because making available knowledge and training
on our law and legal system on the web puts Singapore
law and its legal experts on the global radar screen.
About eLearning
The benefits are immense, both to the employer and to
the employee, as Mr Palakrishnan has pointed out. ELearning,
or technology-enabled learning, offers the user a total
learning experience, from online written material and
assignments, video streaming, interactive quizzes, to
threaded discussions and interactive chat rooms.
A lawyer or a professional, logging into the Law Society's
legal education portal embarks immediately on an interactive
and enjoyable learning journey. They will be able to
choose from a range of subject modules, set their own
pace of learning, track progress and receive feedback
from the course facilitator.
Shortly we will bring you through a preview of an online
course to demonstrate how Logecis, our eLearning solution,
can be a useful and interesting resource not just for
lawyers but those who want to learn things legal.
Conclusion
To stay competitive in the global market space, we have
to be able to expand our knowledge base and skills set
quickly, with minimum productive downtime.
ELearning is one such way.
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