eLearning or eInfo and what to do when offline?

One of the things that I am constantly struggling with is the difference between what I call eLearning and eInformation (or eInfo). Wikis, blogs, RSS-feeds are all great stuff and have definitely changed the way we communicate with each other in the online world. However, when I see how it is used in training most of the time it seems that it's mainly for passing on information. That to me is not necessarily the same thing as training. Of course we can learn a lot from reading a wiki, blog or RSS feed, but that is not much different from picking up a book or magazine or newspaper other than the possibility of frequent updates.

So how can we use these tools in a behaviour/thought-changing way? How can we encourage people to look at them and to actively participate? One of the things that I implemented on my royalty forum is a peerage system. Those who offered valuable contributions were created a Duke, Duchess, Earl or Countess. It greatly improved the quality of the discussions. Other, similar systems have been implemented elsewhere, including rating systems where users (read participants) would rate each other's contributions. Rewards/bonuses could be attached to this as an additional encouragement tool. You can also think about measuring activity/participation in these online tools and dish out rewards or recognition based on that. Another way to improve usage could be encouraging create writing in order to really bring the content to life and make it interesting to read. Turn your wiki or blog into a page-turner!

That doesn't anser my question on how to use the tools in a behaviour/thought-changing way. I'll have to give that question a bit more thought... Watch this space and/or contribute your own thoughts!

One of the things that annoys me the most about wikis/blogs/rss-feeds is that they can normally only be used online. We use our internal wiki a lot for a ton of things. But if I don't have internet access, I cannot read or contribute and usual that's the best time for me to do so as I won't get distracted by email/IM etc. (Yes, I know I can switch those off, but come on... ;-) ) This also creates a challenge when you want to use these tools in an eLearning environment. An online tutorial can often be downloaded and taken offline. Not possible (afaik) with a wiki, blog or rss-feed. But... I can't imagine it being so difficult to change that! After all, we have had offline usenet newsreaders for years. I think making the content available offline would be another great step forward in the eLearning world.