Mentor Technologies' vLab Lives On If you've been following the e-learning space, you might have heard that Mentor Technologies recently became another casualty of the recession. To anyone familiar with Mentor Technologies vLabs, you'd know this was a great loss (oh boy, this is beginning to sound like a eulogy).
Mentor Technologies was one of the early innovators in "lab" technology. Essentially they developed a sophisticated proprietary technology that provided an individual student or classroom access to the actual hardware and software the students were learning about. This was a monumental step forward in enabling students to get "real-world" practice without the expensive out-of-pocket investment. Most IT educators would agree that for IT training to be truly beneficial, students must achieve both real-world experience and conceptual knowledge-simulations are rarely as effective as the real thing. Before Mentor Technologies came along students and training companies often had to spend tens of thousands of dollars purchasing the equipment themselves. There is, however, a silver lining at the end of this story. E-Learning provider, Element K, has just announced they are acquiring Mentor's vLab technology. This is great news because it means IT professionals will still have a number of viable options for getting "real-world" hands-on experience, other than investing in a lot of expensive equipment or relying on simulations. vLab exercises have been offered by Element K along with its e-Learning service for the past year. vLab will now be offered with Element K's new e-Learning platform, KnowledgeHub. vLab Technology has provided IT students with 24 by seven access to Cisco and Microsoft networking systems. "This technology is so unique, allowing people to have hands-on experience with real gear, which helps to overcome the main shortcoming of e-learning," said Element K's Carrie Arneth Miller. "It is a very strong product and there's a great interest and demand for it in the space. We wanted to continue to be able to provide this technology to our customers." For more information, about vLab Technology, go to http://www.elementk.com. Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=31964&t=31964 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
