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The Internet has not only made it increasingly convenient to make business transactions right in the comfort and privacy of your home or office, but it has proven itself a revolutionary channel for education and training. A few decades back, some industry pundits have predicted that the PC and Internet technologies would create a new dimension in the learning experience, both in the academe and corporate work environment. But they never predicted that this learning experience would be so revolutionized efficiently and cost-effectively that it would be impossible for many companies to go back with the old ways. Consider these developments over the last 5-7 years:

(1) Easy access to data puts an entire library at your fingertips

It started with Computer Based Training (CBT) that became widespread in the 90s when employees can read relevant content from a CD or DVD complete with animation, images and video materials that explain complex processes. Corporate databases that archive real world experiences and problems have become standard knowledgebase tools to aid systems developers/marketers and technical help desk call centers to retrieve a wealth of knowledge in helping customers and employees. Today, companies can no longer operate without such knowledge data warehouses accessible through client PCs and laptops anywhere on the planet.

The ability to access data anywhere has grown to include entire collections of books, journals, legal and court cases, and operating manuals that would occupy entire floors. Today, an iPad, Kindle or any of those PC Tablets can have instant access to up to more than 4000 titles at any time. Their contents are made available as eBooks they can store in their mobile computing devices or from remote cloud-based database servers anywhere on earth.

(2) Broadband Technology brings remote learning a real-time multimedia learning experience

Movies and television made it possible to show short films and documentaries to support classroom instructions. Today, the same media can be stored in corporate databases that learners or trainees can easily access while in their offices or homes using secured VPN access for remote training. Alternatively, they can download all the multimedia files they need on a flash drive they can bring home to study.

Video Conferencing which has been quite expensive and cumbersome to set-up in conference rooms using proprietary telecommunication technologies in the past is now readily available over broadband Internet. Going beyond its telecommunication value, video conferencing over the Internet allows inexpensive real-time classroom interaction with fellow students remotely, whether in several branch locations worldwide, or from homes. Broadband Internet has made it possible for a professor or lecturer to be captured talking in a seminar in London, and be participated in and queried by workers from Manila, Bangalore, Hong Kong, and New York concurrently. It is precisely this technology that has made physical movement through expensive Business Class flights a total waste of time and money for many corporate workers and management staff just to attend a conference or seminar.

(3) Social Networking transforms how we share information

Sharing data can be as simple as sending a file over the Internet as an email attachment, or downloading files from FTP sites. But thanks to the emergence of the social networking phenomenon, collaborating work over a project and learning from experiences with fellow workers across time zones in real time are now common features in online education and getting things done in a world made increasingly interactive with the Internet. More than just Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, the Web 2.0 generation has created blogging and collaborative document sharing with Google and similar online services to become a channel for learning and training never thought possible until about 5 years ago.

Training will never be the same again

The new training model is all about real-time interaction, tons of data sharing involving not just text but multimedia files (images, animation and video), and collaborative learning and engagement. You can mount a class online and have people across nations taking notes on their laptops and tablet PCs. You can have an entire library of all the books, journals, cases and articles you need at your fingertips right from a simple online subscription serving your Kindle or Tablet PC. You can collaborate online with a simulated training project and have as many people pitch in their knowledge and experiences in completing the project that everyone can learn from. With technology evolving every year, you can expect refinements and other possibilities that may once have been thought impossible to become a reality in your learning experience. Who knows, perhaps in the near future, learning how to pilot a helicopter can be just a matter of downloading real world expertise and experience in your brain with just the right data transfer technology implants.