Social learning for organizations and technical learning

I was following discussions on how social learning can be helpful in the technical learning and for organizations. I have come across statements such as ‘The way organizations would learn in near future will be revolutionized by Social learning’, ‘The future learning is Social learning’ and many more. I concur to some of the arguments and statements that I followed. I also agree that 70% of learning is informal and the power of informal learning from your peers and subject matter experts is high. I also agree that learning is more valuable when it is relevant.

This made me critically evaluate the possibility of the future being driven by such unorganized and unstructured learning to replace the existing forms of learning.

So, finally here I am with findings of this medium - ‘Social Learning’ and its uses for learning in real world organizations. I would start with advantages and benefits to begin with.

• Social Learning is a good medium if the topic you are learning is evolving. That is, if the technology or the topic itself is in its very initial stages and people are trying to communicate and discuss the future of the particular technology or topic.
• Social Learning is also very effective if you are trying to gain basic knowledge about a topic by doing your part of research from different available resources. This could mean preparing for a session before going to attend it or to read some topic just to know how relevant it is to you and so on.
• The cost involved in carrying out such basic level of research or knowledge acquisition is very minimal. This could be a very good reason for organizations to encourage Social Learning bearing in mind the extent to which the learning can happen.
• One very interesting aspect of using the social learning platforms such as Linkedin, Facebook and so on is that organizations can create communities specific to a topic. The communities can be created either inside the organization or outside with panel of experts and subject matter experts. This will create a learning eco-system.
• On something like twitter, it is good to follow the subject matter expert or evangelist, department or a vertical to know the updates in the organization or for a technology.
• It is known that information (knowledge) is of two types, formal or explicit information and tacit information. We also know that formal information is easy to track and can be properly managed in an organization. It is often tacit information that is often very easy to lose and difficult to manage. Social learning and social learning platforms are a good way to at least record the tacit information into some form of content/information.

The disadvantages are the important aspects of social learning that can be viewed both as opportunities and short-comings. The opportunities would enhance the learning eco-system if improved.

• It is very important to properly organize the learning eco-system that is easy for learners to find their way in the system. Otherwise, the time invested by learners to find appropriate information/learning may go in vain.
• Lack of subject matter experts or mentors in communities can mislead learners. This would make the learners have difficulty in both understanding the subject and also maintaining their interest in the topic/technology.
• A very common problem in social medium for learning is lack of appropriate monitoring in the communities to see if the medium is not being misused for unnecessary discussions.
• Organizations must encourage and motivate the evangelists and subject matter experts to write articles, blogs, wikis and FFO (Frequently Faced Obstacles) for their respective topic/technology. Without appropriate content in the learning eco-system, learners might not be interested to use the social learning medium.

These few of the findings that I thought were good to write into a post. After my critical study of these facts, I realized that Social Media for Social Learning is here to stay and slowly become an integral part of the existing learning system in organizations. It can even gain prominence and can be impressive medium for learning if used appropriately and with efficient judgment and correct tools to implement.

Learning opportunities with technologies similar to iPad and Slate

Recently, I have been observing the improvements about Apple’s iPad and HP’s Slate. I also had a chance to read quite a number of reviews by eminent critics and observe their critiques. After reading so much, I decided to write my opinion adding a little to the heaps of content available on internet about this topic. I decided to compare two different products similar in nature and their common benefits for learning. I understand that HP’s Slate is not yet released in market. But, I chose to write based on what I have been reading about both these products.
Before I write anything more about this, I would like clarify that I do not believe that iPad is a big mobile phone to deliver m-learning. I hope many of you would agree with me. It is not meant to be mobile phone in the first place if my understanding is correct. I see this technology as a hybrid of mobile technology and a laptop. The big screen display and its mobility make me think of the big advantage it can be for learning. More similar products are coming up from giants like Google and others.

If you want to know the basics of these two products, I suggest you visit the links below. However, there are a lot more links to blogs, videos and articles critiquing these products.

iPad
Video 1 of Apple's iPad

HP Slate:
Video 1 of HP's Slate
Video 2 of HP's Slate
Video 3 of HP's Slate

While reading about these two products and trying to understand their feasibilities for learning or education, I decided to compare and identify the commonalities of both the products. I found a simple comparison of features between iPad and Slate at wired.com which was adequate for this post. Link at wired.com

I have categorized the advantages of this technology for learning under few heads.
1. Multi-touch screen / User Interface: The multi-touch screen is a good feature in this technology which would simulate the real world experience of a book/slate with digital technology. Tasks like drag and drops, choosing an option and many more simple and complex tasks can be very interesting for a learner. It would be useful for us Instructional Designers to leverage upon this experience and enhance the learning. Learning can be engaging if the technology can be used appropriately and intelligently without overdoing. However, if this technology seems to be very promising in the future. It is still in the very initial stages to comment on its specific advantages in the future.
2. Weight / Mobility / Portability: The built of this product is also a big benefit for learners. Both iPad and Slate are light in weight and in the size of a medium notebook. This makes it easy to carry. The display screen is a combination of both mobile and notebook which is easy to navigate and operate.
3. Wi-Fi / Connectivity: The Wi-Fi connectivity which is a common feature in both the products enables learner to use online courses and also to collaborate in a network.
4. Software supported: Most of the content for e-learning is in Flash these days. So, I had to mention this in my post. Slate supports Flash while iPad does not support Flash player yet. However, Abode CS5 has some features that can deliver applications for iPod and iPad. So, positively we can hope for better compatibility between iPad and Flash Player in the near future.
5. Storage and applications: Both iPad and Slate have storage starting from 16GB to 64GB in multiple variants. This disk space can also be efficiently used to deliver some downloadable courses and learning material for offline learning.
6. Internet / Collaboration: With Wi-Fi, internet can enable different forms of collaboration, which I think everyone of us already know (Mails, Forums, Blogs, Chats, Webinars, etc.). I would love to write more on this but may be in another post.
7. Camera: Camera is one feature which currently not available in iPad. But Slate promises of two cameras one for conferencing and one to take photographs. This would be a very good feature to expect, because then webinars with video would be possible from anywhere.
8. Speed: The speed is another aspect which we can expect to improve in the future to enable better performance for learners for multi-tasking. However, the current speed is sufficient for iPad since it does not support multi tasking equivalent to a laptop. For HP’s Slate it is very early to comment on this aspect yet.

To sum up, the technology is promising with different options and opportunities for enhancing learning and to develop and deliver engaging learning solutions. As an Instructional Designer I am excited to think of different ways to enhance the learning leveraging on the ever changing and improving technology.