An insider sees a lot of tomfoolery, and I've been an eLearning insider since it had an inside to be in. Here are some observations about the learning Business I thought you might want to hear.

It has become trite to point out that the e of eLearning doesn't matter and that it's the learning that counts. I don't think the learning counts for much either. What's important is the doing that results from learning. Executives don't care about learning; they care about execution.
In 2001, training directors turned their attention to return on Investment. Unfortunately, instead of learning cost-benefit analysis, people who wanted to speak the language of business studied accounting. Created long before knowledge work was invented, accounting values intangibles such as human capital at zero and counts training as an expense instead of an Investment.
Consider how we managed to end up with a VCR in every classroom. Was it because teachers wanted to show nature documentaries? Hardly. Massive demand by America's seemingly endless thirst for pornography drove the unit price to $100. Smart phones, voice recognition, and virtual reality are learning tools, but learning won't drive their development. Courses are dead.