Last April, I had the good fortune to speak about the AIR community during the Media and Communities conference at the University of Innsbruck. At that time, as our cherished readers will remember, AIRSPACE was gearing up for its summer issue: a broad range of articles on the topic of training for independents. For that reason, my mind was heavy on the topic of how AIR members could best be taught the skills so necessary to flourish in our tough public radio environment.

It seemed that I wasn't the only one hanging on the topic: the conference focused heavily on the ways media (primarily Internet multi-media) could be used to educate. MIT's David Thornburn gave a talk on the OpenCourseWare that the institute is developing--effectively making MIT undergraduate course materials available on the Web. Martina Matzer, a scientific researcher at the Centre for Multimedia and Learning at the Joanneum Professional School in Graz, Austria, spoke on the new virtual learning site her company put together for the Radiopharmacy community. Countless others, from Africa to India and North America to Australia, talked about how a multitude of individuals, organizations, and even societies are learning through electronic media.

Of the theories and projects that were presented in Austria, there was one that I thought could best help AIR to answer the question of "whither, training?" eLearning Environments, an Austrian research studio that offers cutting-edge training, uses a wide variety of media outlets, from Internet and CD-ROM to cell phones and one-on-one seminars, to address the question.

"We developed the name 'E-Learning Environments', putting an emphasis not just on the question of using digital material to learn things, but to think of the whole environment one is involved in," said Dr. Theo Hug, studio leader of the developing project, states. "Different media, different cultures, different forms of communications. Creating learning processes that are supported by media outlets in the wide sense. We're trying to achieve smart media solutions--applying technologies in a human way, solving the problems in a way that deals with the needs people have."

Dr. Hug, who is also a professor of Media Education at the University of Innsbruck, utilizes a two-step process for teasing out an organization's best eLearning Environment. First, the environment within which a company or organization operates is evaluated. What are the factors that affect the learning process? For instance, there are a number of factors involved that will effect the way AIR learns as a group: we are spread out across the globe; we range in age from 20-65; and, as independents, we barely have any resources, just to name a few.

Second, the appropriate media delivery system(s) are determined based on the evaluation of the aforementioned environment: what electronic media would be best for the group as a whole? This has led eLearning Environments toward some extremely innovative concepts and delivery methods. The most fascinating of these, at the moment, is Pulse-Based learning, in which small "knowledge nuggets" are delivered to students through cell-phone text messages and computer pop-up windows over the course of the day.

"If you add up these ten small lessons a day," said Dr. Hug, "at the end of two months you've been involved in a learning process that didn't disturb you too much. You did all of the things you wanted to do, but got into the process."

eLearning Environments could be extremely helpful in creating new and innovative training opportunities for AIR members. As Dr. Hug sees it, it's only a matter of asking the right questions to see how we'll move into the future, starting with the simple ones: "One could have an idea if they were to ask: 'How does AIR learn? How do AIR members learn?'"

I'd ask all members to ponder these very questions, and let me know your thoughts. In the meanwhile, AIR will be working closely with Dr. Hug to determine ways create an optimum eLearning Environment for our members.

Matthew Payne is a graduate of Ithaca College's prestigious Park School in International Communications. He is working with Dr. Hug and members of the Global Media Research Network on a number of e-media projects. His e-mail address is: Matthew_D_Payne@excite.com.