Following last year’s inaugural debate on e-learning at the Oxford Union – the prestigious 186-year-old debating society – Epic, the equally well established (in terms of the e-learning industry) e-learning content provider, has been encouraged to try this format again.

So, on 6^th October, Epic is sponsoring another Oxford Union debate – linking informal learning with learning technologies in the motion: ‘This house believes that technology-based informal learning is more style than substance.’

The speaker list includes informal learning guru Jay Cross; the author and academic Dr Alison Rossett, and Professor William Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute.

Comment: In promoting this event, the eLN – another august body in the corporate e-learning world – describes this debate as being about ‘the oldest of topics’ (informal learning). I always thought that the oldest topics belonged to the oldest profession – which I always believed to be something completely different from e-learning.

No doubt these three august bodies – Epic, the eLN and the Oxford Union – will be able to prove me wrong on 6^th October.