Leader in Online & Mobile Training

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Little Planet Learning's talented team is celebrating its 20th Anniversary.  Little Planet creates uniquely engaging and motivational training and game solutions for both students and adult learners.  Unlike most companies in the e-learning industry, Little Planet does not rely on a cookbook of pre-defined approaches.  Instead, Little Planet customizes programs that speak directly and powerfully to each learning audience.   

Little Planet Learning, Inc traces its roots to the early 1990s.  Dr. John Bransford, a leading learning scientist at Vanderbilt University and co-author of "How People Learn," teamed up with Bill Nelson.  Nelson began his career as a high school educator teaching teen-agers creative writing.  To make the class more interesting, he began having his students create films to tell stories. "When I saw how powerful that was, it made me want to get into the movies," Bill recalls.  He went on to become a Hollywood veteran whose résumé included Academy Award nominated work on the "Lethal Weapon" and "Heartbreak Ridge" before returning to his passion of education.

Our success is based on a fusion of three essential skills:

• A thorough understanding of educational and organizational psychology;
• Expertise in extracting content held within a client's organization – be it individual, social or cultural –
•  and converting for knowledge transfer; as well as,
• A deep understanding of new media and how best to exploit it in order to insure the best possible learning outcomes.

 

Little Planet has long been a leader in eLearning, although resists using the buzzword.  "In our world, expertise in technology is always in service to the content we are charged with developing," explains Charlie Cobean, Little Planet's Senior Producer & Creative Director.  "Our process is unique in the industry. We take what we call 'an anthropological approach' to understand what is important to our audience – how they think, speak, and feel – in order to make the learning experience enjoyable, memorable and behavior changing."

Milestones 1992 – 2012

The Little Planet Literacy Series, comprised of Thinking Out Loud (preK-K); The Ribbitt Collection (grades 1-2), The Glowbird Collection (grades 3-4) and Knock! Knock! (a home product for pre-school) won the 1997 Software Publishers CODIE Award for Best Curriculum Software for Early Education.  The Literacy Series successfully pioneered self-paced, anchored learning to motivate young readers.  By time Houghton Mifflin purchased The Literacy Series in 1999, over 10,000 schools in the U.S. as well as Canada and Japan were using these programs to help young readers build their oral language skills and to proudly produce their own multimedia stories.   More awards >>

Other highly acclaimed series included Itty Bitty City, Take Me to Your Readers and the Basement Bums.

To support its broadening client base across government, military and the Fortune 500, Little Planet purchased the Frontline Technology Center in Boulder, CO in 2002.   FTC specialized in development of e-learning and knowledge management tools designed to achieve business goals, as well as improve morale and workforce productivity. 

In 2010, Little Planet's TALON program (Tactical Language Online Network), the third in a series of language and culture programs for the U.S. Army, won the company's second CODiE Award for Best Corporate Learning Solution in the Education category.  TALON was designed to teach U.S. Army personnel tactical Iraqi language and culture skills, better preparing them for social and mission-based situations.

In the past decade, Little Planet Learning has partnered with large public- and private-sector organizations, including Hospital Corporation of America, The U.S. Department of the Interior, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft, Eli Lilly Corporation, Vanderbilt University, NASA, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Army, to name a few.   Partial Client List, more >>

The array of training delivery methods has continually evolved to keep pace with current technology options in both schools and in the corporate world.  Mobile devices, tablets and other distance-learning tools have quickly reshaped ideas about just in time training.  And, in order to better support their customers, Little Planet has also added services ranging from hosting and managing custom training products to providing a comprehensive knowledge management tool, Compass™.

Why hasLittle Planet Learning been successful for the past 20 years?  

The key is to listen.  What are the goals?  What are the desired outcomes? What is the culture of the organization? This is how Little Planet insures that the technology solutions developed aligned with the learning objectives and not the main driver of the final product. By gaining the real-world insights from those who know best and delivering them in an engaging, real-world setting, the "human element" is kept first.  

What do the next 20 years hold?

Nelson is excited about the future of Little Planet Learning.  Education and life-long workforce training are increasingly critical to stay competitive in the global economy.  

In the upcoming 20 years, Nelson predicts, "The demand for mobility, interactivity and visually engaging training will continue to explode.  Use of games and social media to support team learning in simulated live environments will provide more relevant and timely learning experiences."  Underlying all these advances in training, however, is the need for deep educational foundations.  "Little Planet Learning will stay on the forefront of creatively using training technology to help people – students and professionals – achieve their full potential."

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Little Planet Learning, a registered small business,is an award-winning applied learning sciences company based in Nashville, Tenn.  It specializes in custom learning solutions that solve organizational development challenges surrounding training for education, Fortune 500 and government clients around the world. For more information, contact Little Planet Learning at (615) 259-3733 or contact@littleplanetlearning.com, or visit the website at www.littleplanet.com.

Media Contact: Valerie MacLeod Little Planet Learning, Inc., 6152593733, valerie@littleplanet.com

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SOURCE Little Planet Learning, Inc.

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