The Learning Circuits Blog

New Skills for Learning Professionals

2009-07-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

This month's big question comes out of a discussion that I've been having in various forms over the past few years. In a Learning 2.0 world, where learning and performance solutions take on a wider variety of forms and where churn happens at a much more rapid pace, what new skills and knowledge are required for learning professionals?

New Skills and Knowledge for Learning Professionals?

I know that there's already quite a bit out there on this topic, so please point us to existing information on the topic.

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Put your thoughts in a comment below. Likely there can be some pretty good thoughts left via a comment.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0 : eLearningTechnology

Responses So Far:

Mohamed Amine Chatti - New Skills for Learning Professionals
Harold Jarche - 2008 article on Skills 2.0
Clive Shepherd
Jay Cross - Informal Learning blog.
E-Learning Curve Blog: Learning Professionals’ Skills 2.0
Natalie - What Should Learning Professionals Know Today?
Gina - Adventures in Corporate Education
Jane Bozarth - New Skills for Learning Professionals
Blogger in Middle-earth: New Strategies, New Skills? A Big Question
Nancy White - 4 Meta Skills for Learning Professionals
Nancy White - Skills for Learning Professionals Part 2
Nancy White -Skills for Learning Professionals Part 3
Michael Chalk -Psst.. knowledge-worker? You have mad skills?
Harold Jarche -Skills for learning professionals
Clark Quinn: Web 2.0 Learning Skills
JD - eLearning Dude
Tom Gram: New Skills for the Learning Pro?
Karyn Romeis - Do your job!
Victoria Macarthur: A Propositional Structure: New Skills and Knowledge for Learning Professionals? (Adaptation, Personalization, and Community)
Peter's Blog: New Skills for Learning Professionals
Nancy White: Deeper Skills for Learning Professionals…Part 4
Michele Martin - Information Literacy and Habits of Mind

Time Spent

2009-06-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

This month's big question comes from an inquiry I received from Robert Kennedy via my blog. The question was:

What is your typical day like? How do you do all you do with elearning learning, elearning technology, techempower, work literacy and all the consulting and still remain profitable while having a LIFE? Ok, so that is more than one question, but hopefully you get the drift. What are your thoughts here?

This is a great question and I'm guessing the answers will be quite interesting. After all, when I do presentations that introduce things like blogs, RSS readers, social networks, etc. I am almost always asked - "How much time do you spend on this? Where do you find the time?" And what they really mean is - I'm already too busy, how the heck can I also do all of what you are telling me about. So I really hope that we can have a great resource here that will give people a sense of what's going on in the lives of people who are adopting some of these things.

Where is your time spent?

I'm really hoping that we can get a broad cross section of answers. I consider myself to be somewhat of a "special case" ... but I'm guessing that's true for many of us.

Beyond the basic answer I'm hoping you will chime in with thoughts around:

How much time do you spend and how did you find time for all the relatively newer things like reading blogs, twitter, social networks, etc.?
What are you doing less of today than you were 3-5 years ago?
Do you have less of a life with all of these new things?

How to Respond:

Jenise Cook | Ridge View Media's Blog - Time Spent
Rupa - Big Question June 2009 :Where is your time spent?
Jennifer Beever: The Big Question June 2009: Where is Your Time Spent?
Just Reflections
Archana: Quantifying Time Spent on Web 2.0 tools
Abhijit Kadle - The Big Question: Time Spent
Michele Martin: The Big Question
How Clive Shepherd spends his time
Robert Kennedy - Big Question - June 2009
Ken Allan - 'ere 'tis.
Sreya Dutta Big Question: Time Spent
Virginia Yonkers: Connecting 2 the world
Norman Lamont: http://normanlamont.typepad.com/eellearning/
Tony Karrer: How I Spend My Time
Inge de Waard: Finding my 2.0-time schedule scrambled for personal reasons
Francis - http://www.mantissa.net/blog/2009/06/15/the-big-question-how-do-you-spend-your-time/
Gina from Adventures in Corporate Education: Where do I spend my time? June’s Big Question

Social Grid Value

2009-05-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

This month's big question comes from an inquiry that I received as a result of my presentation on the Social Grid. The question is the basis of the May 2009 Big Question:

How does/will the Social Grid will impact Human Capital and Organizations?

In Social Learning Measurement, I discussed some different ways that we could measure social learning, but I think the question that is raised here is a question that needs to be asked prior to asking about measurement.

My guess is that there are all kinds of interesting dynamics that will come about in organizations that have a strong social grid and a workforce that is highly skilled in using that social grid. For example, the recent MIT Study that showed that more highly networked individuals were more productive (see Workplace Productivity).

What do you see as the impact?

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Put your thoughts in a comment below.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0 : eLearningTechnology

Responses So Far:

Clark Quinn - Learnlets on Twitter and Chaos

April 2009 - Getting Unstuck

2009-04-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last month's big question got quite a great response. I'm very much looking forward to the response this month.

The inspiration for this question comes straight from Gina Minks' post - I think grad school is making me crazy. She is in a graduate school program and is a great self-directed learner:

I’m learning about things like instructional theories, learning theories, how to tie learning to performance, how to tie learning to business requirements, and ways to measure all these things.
I’m learning that my technical skills are important as learning moves to a web 2.0 platform. I’m learning my experience as a community organizer is very transferable to building online communities. I’ve learned my background in information studies helps tie all these things together.
Participating in courses like CCK08 helped accelerate my thinking on the real possibilities of change that are available now.

But Gina also works inside an organization (in her case a large corporation) but I think most people will recognize her comment:

The realities of being part of a large organization and my responsibilities are more clear to me now too.
I feel I’m going to be stuck doing the same thing forever with all these cool ideas in my head that will never get implemented.

Thus, for April 2009 Big Question is:

Stuck? Getting unstuck?

There's really quite a bit to this question.

Do you sometimes feel stuck? Feel like you have so many more ideas about how you could help your organization or your clients, but that What Clients Want is just some training?
Should you attempt to get unstuck? How hard should you push your internal or external clients to get them to see the full range of what is possible? Or should you give them what they ask for?
If you are feeling some level of stuck, what should you do to get unstuck? How important is it to get unstuck? Is it okay to learn a lot about all kinds of different solutions, but to primarily work on simple training solutions?
If you are stuck, should you be concerned about your future?

For those of you who are not bloggers, come and at least comment on whether you feel a bit stuck!

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment below. This may be hard given the complexity of the topic.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0 : eLearningTechnology

Posts so far (and read comments as well):

Sreya Dutta - Big Question: OMG I'm Stuck!!
Jeff Goldman - April's Big Question
Rupa Rajagopalan - Big Question: Stuck? Getting Unstuck?
Ignatia/Inge de Waard - Get your innovative eLearning ideas out no matter what others think!
Robert Kennedy - Getting Rid Of The Glue
Anthony Montalvo - Help! I'm stuck!
Clark Quinn's Learnlets: Getting Revolutionary
Stephanie Sandifer - Getting Unstuck
Lisa Meece - April's Big Question on the LOL Blog
Amit Garg - Upside Learning Blog - Just do it
Kern's Learnability Matters - Getting Stuck and Unstuck

Workplace Learning in 10 Years

2009-03-01T04:45:00.000-08:00

This month it's time for a truly BIG question. The inspiration for this question comes from the recent posts discussing the future of workplace learning:

Jay Cross and Harold Jarche - Future of the Training Department
Jay Cross - eLearning is not the Answer
Tony Karrer - Corporate Training
Dave Wilkins - The Future of Training Started Yesterday

Thus, for March 2009 Big Question is:

Workplace Learning in
10 Years?

If you peer inside an organization in 10 years time and you look at how workplace learning is being supported by that organization, what will you see? What will the mix of Push vs. Pull Learning; Formal vs. Informal supported by the organization? Are there training departments? What are they doing? How big are they as compared to today? What new departments will be responsible for parts of workplace learning? What will current members of training departments be doing in 10 years?

How to Respond:

The Learning Revolution: 2019: A workplace learning odyssey
Piotr Peszko: Will "training" exist in 2019 ?
MinuteBio Big Question - In the Year 2019
Quinnovator (at Learnlets) - Workplace learning in 10 years
David Wilkins - Social Learning Blog: "Workplace Learning" in 10 Years?
Harold, Clark, Jay - YouTube discussion.
Jay Cross - my personal thoughts on the matter.
Karyn Romeis - March's big question - worplace learning in 10 years
Mohamed Amine Chatti - The future of the training department
Clive Shepherd's predictions - http://tinyurl.com/d7qakm
Lisa Meece The Big Question: http://www.bottomlineperformance.com/lolblog/?p=689
Here's a vision of technology in 2019 that will stretch your thinking.
Adventures in Corporate Education - I answered the big question with a question. :)
Jacob McNulty: Learning & Development in the Future
Anthony Montalvo - El aprendizaje en la empresa en 10 años
Matt Moore: Learning + Knowledge = ?
Sreya Dutta: Big Question: Workplace Learning in 10 years
Ken Allan's Response
Tony Karrer - eLearning Technology - Workplace Learning Professionals Next Job - Management Consultant
Ignatia/Inge de Waard gives a Belgian/Indian/American two cents of a human/machine interface for the future (that is now)
Rodolpho Arruda - Workplace Learning in 10 Years
Ryan Tracey - E-Learning in the Corporate Sector
Workplace Learning and Me - 10 years from now...
Upside Learning Blog - The Future of Workplace Learning
Saul Carliner - Long Live Instructor Led Learning
Tony Karrer - Long Live

Digital, Rapid eLearning, & Social Media Conversations

2009-02-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom - Innovate

Digital wisdom is a twofold concept, referring both to wisdom arising from the use of digital technology to access cognitive power beyond our innate capacity and to wisdom in the prudent use of technology to enhance our capabilities.

It Only Took HOW Long? -Duthie earning

We've ended up with 78 minutes of what could be argued is elearning content for doctors. Total production time? 11.9 hours. Run the math and it comes to 9.15 hours' development time per hour of finished 'seat time,' roughly 9:1. Compare this to high production value, interactive elearning, which generally takes 200-300 hours per hour (200:1 to 300:1).

The trouble is that the doctors each spent (in my estimate) 5-10 hours apiece preparing their slides and narrations.

Spy

Listen in on the social media conversations of any topic you're interested in. The above link will take you to the latest converstaions on eLearning. Don't like that one -- try this one.

Two Strands of Connectionism - The Technium

One strand of massive connectionism is currently called social media. The other strand of massive connectionism relies on a massive number of machines. This new territory can best be illustrated by the far-right top extreme where both sides meet in the center - the area where we have maximum machine connection and maximum human connection. This overlap or convergence space would be the emerging global superorganism.

Economic Impact

2009-02-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

There were some really interesting posts last month in - Challenges Plans and Predictions for 2009. This month's topic was suggested by several people and was touched on by some of the posts last month.

Thus, for February the Big Question is:

What is the impact of the economy on you and your organization? What are you doing as a result?

The goal here is for each of us to reflect and share what's happening to us today as well as looking at what we might need to plan for going forward.

How to Respond:

Jeff Goldman - Big Question: Minutebio.com
Clark Quinn - Learnlets - Economic Impact
Michael Hanley - E-Learning Curve - Impact of Economic Crisis on Elearning
Virginia Yonkers - Answer
Ken Allan - Recent posts on the topic ( 1 ) ( 2 )
Terrence Seamon - http://learningvoyager.blogspot.com/2009/02/big-question-for-february.html
Jesse Kramer my answer
Kapp Notes: Impact of Tough Times
Karyn Romeis - Making it up as I go along
Clive Shepherd - What is the impact of the economy on your organisation?
Anthony Montalvo - La Gran Pregunta
Ankit Jain - Opportunity in Adversity

Challenges Plans and Predictions for 2009

2009-01-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

We had great response to last month's question - What Did You Learn about Learning in 2008? This was a great opportunity to look back at 2008. This month we are going to look forward.

Thus, for January the question is:

What are your
Challenges, Plans and Predictions for 2009?

The goal here is again to be a bit reflective.

What are your biggest challenges for this upcoming year?
What are your major plans for the year?
What predictions do you have for the year?

You might want to take a look back at last month's posts and as well what people talked about in:

January 2008 - Predictions for Learning in 2008?
December 2006 - Past experiences. Present Challenge. Future Predictions.

How to Respond:

Sarah Stewart: Sarah's Musings: http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com/2008/12/huge-challenge-for-me-in-2009.html
Ken Allan - few and simple
Gillian said: http://learningandqualifications.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/re-charged-and-de-clutteredre-charged-and-de-cluttered/
John Zurovchak Long Tail Learning Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009
Karyn Romeis Predicting 2009?
Clark Quinn: Learnlets predictions.
Adventures in Corporate Education: Gina's answer to January's Big Question
My predictions for 2009 at MinuteBio
Lee Graham's eLearning 3.0 Blog: "Your Wish List for eLearning in 2009"
Leslie http://heartofsocialwork.blogspot.com/
Plans, Challenges, Predictions!
Design of Knowledge: 2009 is the Year that Training becomes an Evidence-Based Profession
Dan Roddy, Learning Rocks 2009 - Year of consumer e-learning
Kapp Notes: 2009 Predictions, Remembrance and Challenges
ThirdForce - Seven technologies we're predicting will impact 2009...
Geetha Krishnan: 2009 - Predictions, Challenges, Plans
Mark T. Burke, Virtical Education: 2009 Challenges, Plans and Predictions
Kevin Thorn: LearnNuggets Challenges,Plans,Predictions for 2009
Clive Shepherd: Predictions for 2009
Globe Trotting Kerry - my thoughts here
Ankit Jain - A New Perspective to eLearning Prediction for 2009
Tony Karrer - 12 eLearning Predictions for 2009

Learn about Learning - 2008

2008-12-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

We are going to continue a tradition in the Big Question ...

The Big Question for December is:

What did you learn about learning in 2008?

If you are a blogger, I would highly recommend taking this as an opportunity to go back through your blog posts over the year and looking for any "aha moments" or highlight the posts that you think were the best/most interesting.

You might want to look back at some discussions going on during the last two yearly recaps:

January's Topic:

Predictions for learning in 2009

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment below.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0 : eLearningTechnology

Posts so far (and read comments as well):

Jeff Goldman - What I have Learned
Michael Hanley - A Year in E-Learning: One Blog’s Progress
http://learningjournal.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/musings-toward-new-years-resolutions/
Tony Karrer - 2008 2009
Clark Quinn - What did I learn about learning in 2008?
Ken Allan - The Baby, The Bath and The Bathwater
Karyn Romeis - Oh dear, the dread annual question!
Jason Allen - Nurtured Chaos
Ken Allan - Having Saved the Baby
Ignatia/Inge de Waard - My two cents of learning during the last year.
Rupa - http://blog.thewritersgateway.com/2008/12/08/what-i-learnt-in-2008/
Katie Christo - What have I learned about learning in 2008?
Virginia Yonkers: Connecting 2 the World
Erin Murphy - What did I learn about learning in 2008
Adventures in Corporate Education - Big Question: What did you learn in 2008
John Zurovchak - Long Tail Learning:The Big Question December 2008
Ellen at the aLearning Blog
Taruna Goel - Learning About Learning in 2008
Kevin Marsh - http://storycurve.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-i-learned-in-2008.html
Kevin Thorn - 5 Things I learned in 2008
Kerry... what I've learned
Manish Mohan - What I learned in 2008
Karl Kapp - New Learning
Clive Shepherd
Christy Tucker: What I Learned This Year
Geetha Krishnan: 2008: Low on Learning
Ingrid O'Sullivan - What did I learn in 2008? Lots..

Network Feedback

2008-11-02T08:49:00.001-08:00

This month's question comes out of part of the dialog that occur during the recent Work Literacy course. While discussing social networking for personal learning, the question came up around being able to reach out and get help from people or find expertise in the form of a person / conversation.

Thus, for November we are exploring:

Network Feedback

In Getting Help, I discussed some aspects of the central question being raised. I've got a question about a work task and would like to get feedback from someone (a person, hopefully with some level of experience and expertise on the topic). Or paraphrasing Colin in Blogging to ask for Help:

If you need input from people, where's the best place to ask?

My larger claim is that this is one of the most important, fundamental shifts in New Work
and new work skills that include being able to:

How to reach out and find expertise
How to use Social Media to Find Answers to Questions
How to Learn through Conversation

However, the question overly simplifies the problem. Different situations will require different answers. There's no "best place". And the landscape is shifting all the time. And while I discussed a couple examples this recently in LinkedIn for Finding Expertise and Searching for Expertise - LinkedIn Answers, my belief is that it is really hard right now to know enough about enough places to make good choices about:

Where to go in what cases?
What works and doesn't work?
How do you effectively work within a given context?
What do you need to have done to effectively get help ahead of time?
Are there places you can go if you are relatively new and needing to ask questions?

In addition to your thoughts on the above, it would be really great if people who answer this could provide specific examples.

What was the question you were facing?
What did you consider using?
What were the steps you took? How did things evolve?
What was the outcome?
What could you have done differently? Better?

I'm also certain there are lots of resources out there that could help someone learn about this. I'd appreciate pointers to any of those.

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment below. This may be a good question to leave a comment.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0 : eLearningTechnology

Posts so far (and read comments as well):

Karyn Romeis - November's Big Question: getting feedback
Manish Mohan - Email as best input source - here.
Colin - Opportunity Knocks - Input Needed
Jeffery Goldman - http://minutebio.com/blog/?p=70
Gina Minks - Adventures in Corporate Education: Learning Circuit Blog’s Big Question for November: Network Feedback
Kapp Notes: The Right Place to Find Help: ASTDs Big Question
Example Inquiry - Find Speaker for Local ASTD Chapter
Get Help - Spam?

First eLearning

2008-10-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

This month's question comes from a series of questions I've received recently on my blog all asking some form of, "I'm interested in eLearning. What should I do first?"

Thus, for October we are exploring:

First e-Learning

An example is shown in my post - First Authoring Tool.

I am an educator in Arizona about to graduate with my Masters in Instructional Design. I wish to apply my experience designing courses for online learning; however I've searched and don't know where to begin to actually learn how to use the LMS and course design software available. I came across your blog and thought you might be able to offer some suggestions.

I have great computer skills but am not experienced in creating web courses. I've seen all sorts of elearning software- Dreamweaver, Lectora, Captivate, Flash etc etc mentioned in job ads, but don't really know which ones to choose in order to get a well rounded working knowledge of how to build a course. Do you have any suggestions where to start? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Now, several people took the opportunity to politely bash their masters program for not giving them this experience as part of their education. Let's avoid this here. Instead, let's focus on the real point of the question.

So, what advice would you give to someone new to the field. Where do you start?

Particular tools you should explore?
Resources you should read? Videos/screencasts you should watch?
What would your To Learn List look like?

How to Respond:

Getting Started With Instructional Design.
Kapp Notes: Help, I have an Instructional Design Master's Degree and I Can't Create E-Learning (read some of the comments on Karl's post for addl ideas)
Learnlets - First eLearning
Ken Allan - The Elearning Apprentice
Clive Shepherd - http://clive-shepherd.blogspot.com/2008/10/big-question-making-start-in-e-learning.html
Brandon Hall Research: Janet Clarey, E-Learning for Newbies
Vinnie - How To Get Started in E-learning- The Big Question
BLP - Lessons on Learning
Wendy - My thoughts
Gina Minks - Learning Circuits Blog Big Question: E-Learning
Kevin - Learn to eLearn

To-Learn Lists

2008-09-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

This month's question comes out of something that Catherine Lombardozzi wrote pointed me to:

Jim Collins, in an essay in Learning Journeys, wrote, “A true learning person also has a “to-learn” list, and the items on that list carry at least as much weight in how one organizes his or her time as the to-do list.”

Thus, for September we are exploring:

To-Learn Lists

I personally, do not have a formal to-learn list. Instead, my exploration via work, blogging, speaking, I seem to find ample learning opportunities. But it does seem like a very good idea to be a bit more directed. So, more specifically, I'd like to hear:

If you have a to-learn list and are willing to share, and willing to share how you work with that list, that would likely be helpful information.
As Knowledge Workers, work and learning are the same, so how does a to-learn list really differ from a to-do list? How are they different than undirected learning through work, blogging, conferences, etc.?
Are to-learn lists really important to have? Are they as important as what Jim Collins tells us?
Should they be captured? Is so how?
How does a to-learn list impact something like a Learning Management System (LMS) in a Workplace or Educational setting?
What skills, practices, behaviors do modern knowledge workers need around to-learn lists?

This has been discussed a bit out there, but I'm not that familiar with good sources on this topic, so feel free to provide links to sources. I look forward to seeing responses.

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment below. This may be hard given the complexity of the topic.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design : eLearning Technology

Posts so far (and read comments as well):

Manish Mohan - Here's my To-Learn list that I created after reading this post.
The Learning Leaders Blog Response
To-learn list: The Big Question
To Learn Lists: The Big Qustion
Karyn Romeis: The Big Question: To-learn list
My To learn list
The E-learning Curve Blog - To-Learn Lists indicate some potentially useful approaches on how to engage others in continuous learning...
Clark Quinn - To-Learn Lists?
Bill Brantley - To Learn Lists - What My Grandfather Taught Me
Jay Cross: To-learn lists, unlearning.
Ignatia - my to-learn list blogpost
Clive Shepherd: http://clive-shepherd.blogspot.com/2008/09/to-learn-lists.html
Kerry - my list
Norman Lamont - http://normanlamont.typepad.com/eellearning/2008/09/the-big-questio.html
Karl Kapp - Kapp Notes: List to Learn, Learn to List#links
Lorretta J Davis -http://ljdavis.biz/blog/?p=19
Emanuele Siracusa - 5 Things to Learn before a Round the World Trip
Hugh Greenway
Taruna Goel - My views here
Adventures in Corporate Education: What’s a “To Learn” List?
Claudia Escribano @ The LifeLongLearning Lab: Personal Responsibility for Learning

No August Big Question

2008-08-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

Just a quick FYI that due to my vacation, I will not be holding a Big Question in August. See you back in Sept.

Lead the Charge?

2008-07-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

I'm trying something a little different this month. I'm taking a bit more of a position in the question (maybe you could even call it a rant). I'm hoping this will spark some discussion ...

Karl Fisch - wrote the Edublog post of the year in 2007 with Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher? - a wonderful post that concluded with:

In the first few years of the 21st century, you can still be successful if you’re technologically illiterate, but it’s getting harder (and those that are literate have many more opportunities available to them). And by the end of the next decade, I think there will be very little chance of success for those that are technology illiterate.

In order to teach it, we have to do it. How can we teach this to kids, how can we model it, if we aren’t literate ourselves? You need to experience this, you need to explore right along with your students. You need to experience the tools they’ll be using in the 21st century, developing your own networks in parallel with your students. You need to demonstrate continual learning, lifelong learning – for your students, or you will continue to teach your students how to be successful in an age that no longer exists.

Back in March - we asked about the Scope of Learning Responsibility and received a lot of response. Most (if not all) respondents felt that we have fairly broad responsibilities that go beyond formal learning opportunities.

So, if we have responsibility for informal learning, social learning, eLearning 2.0, long tail learning, etc. then ...

Don't we have to conclude that learning professionals must be literate in these things?

If so, then what should learning professionals do to become literate?

I personally see this as much bigger. Work Literacy is trying to figure out how knowledge workers can be helped to improve their skills to take advantage of things like social media and new forms of informal learning. This leads me to ...

Should workplace learning professionals be leading the charge around these new work literacies?

Shouldn't they be starting with themselves and helping to develop it throughout the organizations?

And then shouldn't the learning organization become a driver for the organization?

And like in the world of libraries don't we need to market ourselves in this capacity?

To me, these are substantial issues facing all learning organizations and workplace learning professionals. It is THE big question today. It represents a shift in responsibility. A revolution in workplace learning. We can't be training organizations. We must become learning organizations. As learning professionals, we must lead the charge by being in front.

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design : eLearning Technology

Posts So Far:

The Learning Revolution: Where have all the leaders gone?
Harold Jarche - Skills 2.0
Gina Minks: Adventures in Corporate Education What Competencies do Knowledge Workers Need?
Clark Quinn - Learnlets: Lead the Charge?
Tony Karrer - eLearning Technology - Learning Professional Leaders
Karyn Romeis - Going off half-cocked
Wendy Wickham - One Project at a Time
Stephen Lahanas - Welcome to The Revolution
Shilpa Patwardhan: Would you trust a firefighter who did not know how to fight fire?
Catherine Lombardozzi - The short answer is yes
The E-Learning Curve - Web 2.0 technologies and learning professionals' opportunities and challenges
Kerry McGuire - Live and Learn: What's the real question?
Kevin Shadix - There's no "I" in "We."
Clive Shepherd
Christy Tucker - Experiencing E-Learning: Leading by Example
Tony Karrer - Work Literacy - Conscious Performance - Path to Improvement
Deb Gallo - Lead the charge?
Jay Cross - No, no, no, no.
Taruna Goel - New Work Literacies - Leading the Way
Tony Karrer - Value of Social Media
Peter Isackson - Phoning it in
Geetha Krishnan - The LCB Question Bank
Mark Oehlert - July's Big Question...Tony K and the "Learning Discipline"
Kimberly McCollum: The networked nature of information
Tony Karrer - Leading Learning and New Skills

Second Life Training

2008-05-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

This month's question came from a reader the June 2008 Big Question is:

Second Life Training?

More specifically:

In what situations, do you believe it makes sense to develop a learning experience that will be delivered within Second Life?
If you were to develop a training island in Second Life, what kind of environment and artifacts would you consider essential for teaching?
Just as there are considerable differences in blended learning and virtual classroom training, what are some of the major differences (surprises) in training within virtual worlds?

This has been discussed a bit out there, but I'm not that familiar with good sources on this topic, so feel free to provide links to sources. I look forward to seeing responses.

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment below. This may be hard given the complexity of the topic.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design : eLearning Technology

Posts so far (and read comments as well):

Clark Quinn - Virtual Worldly
Second Life et al
Bill Brantley - Using Second Life for Online Classes
50 Tips and Tricks to Create a Learning Space in Second Life
Mick Leyden - Can we possibly use Second Life?
G-Cube - e-Learning and Second Life - How viable is it?
Donald Clark - 10 reasons not to use Second Life in learning
Peter Isackson -Second Life... compared to what?
Tony Karrer - Virtual Language Immersion
Karl Kapp - Immerse Yourself in Another Language
Tony Karrer - Second Life as a Learning Tool
Virtual Worlds & Learning
Taruna Goel - Catch my views on Second Life and training here
Kevin Shadix - Shady Learning Blog
Kapp Notes: Think Virtual Worlds: Not Second Life
A problem based learning example

Learning Design Differences for Digital Natives?

2008-05-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Karl Kapp helped me with the May 2008 Big Question which is:

Learning design differences for Digital Natives?

In other words:

Do you believe that we have to design, develop and deliver instruction differently for the so-called Digital Natives?
Are there differences in learning expectations and styles or can we just design good instruction and know that it meets all generational needs?
If you have an audience that includes natives and immigrants, how can you effectively design instruction without breaking the bank?

This has been discussed a bit out there, but I'm not really sure where I stand on it. So, some background reading:

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment below. This may be hard given the complexity of the topic.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - LMS

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - LMS : eLearning Technology

Posts so far:

Karl Kapp-Kapp Notes: Do we really need to design differently for the so called "Digital Natives"?
Michael Hanley - Learning design differences for Digital Natives? A Game-changer
Kevin Jones - Engaged Learning: Learning Design for Digital Natives - Missing The Goldmine
Karyn Romeis - here's mine.
Kerry McGuire - My thoughts...
Clark Quinn - Bugwash!
Anil Mammen - Digital Natives and Learning
Benjamin Hamilton - my response
Why must we attach an ethnicity tag to learning?
Wendy Wickham - For what it's worth.
Taruna Goel - Interesting question. But does the divide exist? My views here
Maria Hlas - Yes, But Not Necessarily Just For Digital Natives
Gina Minks: The Big Question: Are there learning design differences for Digital Natives?
Jack Pierce - The Wall Between Digital Natives And Immigrants
G-Cube: The ‘Digital’ learning divide - native Vs immigrant

Big Questions

2008-04-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

This is the new home of the master list of Big Questions:

May 2008 - Learning Design Differences for Digital Natives?
April 2008 - Do Better?
March 2008 - Scope of Learning Responsibility?
February 2008 - Instructional Design - If? When? How much?
January 2008 - Predictions for Learning in 2008?
December 2007 - What Did You Learn about Learning?

2007

September 2007 Where to Work?
July 2007: Choosing Tools?

June 2007: Where are all the eLearning Examples?

May 2007: Powerpoint: What is appropriate? When and Why?

April 2007: ILT and Off-the-Shelf Vendors - What Should the Do?

March 2007: Supporting New Managers?

February 2007: What Questions Should We be Asking?

January 2007: Quality vs. Speed

2006

December 2006: Past experiences. Present Challenge. Future Predictions.

November 2006: Are our models (ISD, ADDIE, HPT, etc.) relevant in the future?
October 2006: Should All Learning Professionals Be Blogging?

Do Better

2008-04-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

Virginia Yonkers inspired the April 2008 Big Question which is:

What would you like to do better as a Learning Professional?

Simple question, but I'd expect some interesting answers.

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment. This may be more attractive this month since the answer might be relatively short.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design : eLearning Technology

Please note that I will not be moderating roughly from April 5-12 this month. Thus, it may take a while to copy the posts up.

Posts So Far:

Karyn Romeis said... Here's mine.
Shaun said... Another great conversation starter, my 2 cents here
Michael Hanley said... Very tough one this month! Here's my "do better" list...
Nicola - my 3
Malinka Ivanova - The Students' Long Tail
Jeffrey Keefer - What I Hope to Improve as a Learning Professional
Benjamin Hamilton - Push Back
Christy Tucker - My Goal: Better E-Learning Interactivity
Stephen Downes - Mine...
Great Leadership
Designed for Learning
better, not different
What Would I Like To Do Better As A Learning Professional?- From, TATA Interactive Systems
thoughts on the question.
my list of wishes
My thoughts on the question...
Peter Shea Here's my ambition
Not be a production pixie
eCube team blog - Do better as learning professional
Virginia Yonkers
Sylvia Currie - My list
G-Cube: Putting Learner Back Into Learning
Jane - A few thoughts ....
Natalie - Design for Learning
Gina's is here
Act Locally
Ray Cole - This Month's "Big Question"
From Jacob...Learning to be better
Sameer Lele What I would like to do better!

Also see the comment below for additional thoughts.

Scope of Learning Responsibility

2008-03-03T06:18:00.002-08:00

Karl Kapp helped me with the March 2008 Big Question which is:

What is the Scope of our Responsibility as Learning Professionals?

This question comes from several recent experiences. One was a Chief Learning Officer panel discussion where it seemed that supporting informal learning or communities of practice was not something they were considering. There was also discussion on my blog around the fact that in corporations there is a limit to what we can do as a training organization (see Corporate Learning Long Tail and Attention Crisis and Long Tail Learning - Size and Shape). All of this makes me wonder:

Do educational institutions and corporate learning & development departments have responsibility for supporting Long Tail Learning? Do they have responsibility for learning beyond what can be delivered through instruction? If so, what is their responsibility? Where is the edge of responsibility?
Similarly, does the instructor have a responsibility to help students make sense of or deal with content he or she did not teach the students? In other words, if a student finds information on the Internet or some other place, how much time and attention should the instructor allow for the discussion of such content? Should it be discussed at all if it is non-conventional or generally thought of as not credible or contradicts the instructor? Who determines credible research? Is all non-referred research questionable?

Karl and I feel this is an important question for all of us to think about and as a community to begin to address.

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design : eLearning Technology

Posts So Far:

Karyn Romeis (Karyn's erratic learning journey) - The Big Question for March: Scope of Learning Responsibility
Clive Shepherd - The big question: What is the scope of our respons...
Note: Both Karyn and Clive have helped crystallize aspects of the key questions and issues, but my guess is that there is going to be some disagreement with nuances of what they are putting forward. For example, I somewhat take issue with Clive's bottom line:

The learning professional can never be 'responsible' for anyone's learning, but they help to create an environment in which learning takes place in every context.

Learnlets - Scope of Responsibility.
Bill Brantley - Design of Knowledge: How Responsible Are We For Learning
Jacob McNulty - Scope it Out
Learning Revolution: Responsible learning
Taruna Goel : The Role and Responsibilities of Learning Professionals
Ignatia - Scope of Learning Responsibility: not my concern!
Tony Karrer - Learning Responsibility
Bill Brantley - More Thoughts on the Long Tail of Learning
Jay Cross - When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Stephen Lahanas - The Learning Enterprise is Everyone's Responsbility
Karl Kapp - Kapp Notes: Who's Responsible for This?
Mick Leyden - Professional Responsibility???
Tony Karrer - Learning Objectives, Performance Objectives and Business Needs
Maria Hlas - Who's Job is it Anyway?
Nicola - quick thoughts
Catherine Lombardozzi - The Learning Leader's Responsibility at
Tony O'Driscoll
Priya Thiagarajan, Chicken Soup for the Mind
Geetha Krishnan Scope . . . Responsibility . . . Learning Professionals
Michael Hanley. Learning Professionals: the Economists of Knowledge
Limits of Responsibility : Caddickisms

Instructional Design - If - When - How Much

2008-01-31T15:05:00.000-08:00

Cammy Bean helped spark and work through the February 2008 Big Question with me.

Instructional Design - If, When and How Much?

In a bit more detail, the critical question seems to be:

For a given project, how do you determine if, when and how much an instructional designer and instructional design is needed?

To help you get started, I would recommend looking at some of the thoughts in the following posts:

The more that Cammy and I have explored this topic, the more questions we feel we have:

What value do we really offer beyond a SME with a tool? How do we distinguish the cases where we are needed?
(Reuben Tozman) What skills/knowledge do instructional designers bring to the table that is unique to our profession that other trades do not? Is our value in wielding the latest and greatest rapid development tools? Not if our SME's are using them also? Is it our knowledge of psychometrics when we create assessments? Nope. Is it our writing abilities? Is it our knowledge of communications?Do you think instructional designers should be able to use the tools?
Do you think instructional designers should go away and leave the rapid tools to the SMEs?
If we want SMEs to use rapid eLearning tools to create content, do they need training in ID? What training?
If someone without a background in ID is told to "create this course" - are they doing instructional design? Or is it something different? Is there some kind of range of ID capability? How do you explain the spectrum?
How can I really tell if there was good ID work? Could I have done as well by producing something far less?
If it takes more to create something "better" - do I really need to do that? How about when up-front knowledge of return on investment is not really known?
How is this different in academia vs. corporate.

Cammy's thesis - and I agree - is that ID is widely varied. But with that variety comes a big question of the value of ID as compared to a SME with a Wiki or rapid eLearning tool.

How to Respond:

Please post on your blog or put thoughts in a comment and I'll put a link to your post. You will get bonus points for:

Including a link to this post and even better include the Big Question logo.
In your comment, provide an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste. In other words - please include an HTML anchor tag in your comment. PLEASE.

Posts So Far:

Manish Mohan - ongoing discussions
Jay Cross - My two cents.
Learning Circuit's big question for Feb 2008 Instructional Design ...
Instructional Design - If, When and How Much? - My Response
Tony Karrer - Common Sense and Intuition Not Enough
Bill Brandon
Clark Quinn - My $0.05.
Benjamin Hamilton - My Thoughts
Nicola Avery - mine
Donald Clark - On Design
Cammy Bean - The Big Question: Instructional Design as Spectrum
Mick Leyden - Here is my take
Michael Hanley - My Reply: ISD - on the precipice of a crossroads?
Anil Mammen - Instructional Design - If, When and But
Geetha Krishnan - response
Jack Pierce and I (Tony Karrer) had a recent back and forth around a closely related topic:

Online Training vs eLearning : eLearning Technology

See the comments

w/Mindshare: Juggling eLearning vs Online Training

Vinnie - How much ID do we need?
Peter Isackson - my contribution
Jane Bozarth - When is design done (short, but good ... does it prove itself in her post?)
John Shaffer - Is ISD Needed?
Malinka Ivanova - Instructional Design as a Building Skeleton
Gary Hegenbart - Why Bother with Instructional Design?
Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design : eLearning Technology
Viplav Baxi - My two cents here
Manish Gupta -G-Cube: Training - One Fourth Preparation; Three-Fourths Theatre
Jeffrey Keefer - Silence and Voice
Karl Kapp: We Need a Degree in Instructional Design

Karl has touched off some reaction - see:

Christy Tucker Patterns in Instructional Design Responses

A tag cloud of the words used in the discussion - fun way to look at it.

Predictions for Learning in 2008

2007-12-31T09:51:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! As promised ...

The Big Question for January is:

What are your Predictions for Learning in 2008?

To help you get started, you might want to look back at the posts on last months big question and last year's predictions.

December 2007 - What Did You Learn about Learning?
December 2006 - Past experiences. Present Challenge. Future Predictions.

How to Respond:

Please post on your blog or put thoughts in a comment and I'll put a link to your post. You will get bonus points for:

Including a link to this post and even better include the Big Question logo.
In your comment, provide an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste. For example, Tony Karrer - My Aha Moments in 2007 is great. To do this simply use an anchor tag in your comment.

Posts So Far:

Manish Mohan
Benjamin Hamilton
Clark Quinn's Learnets: 2008 Predictions for Learning
John Shaffer - Learning Predictions for 2008
Wendy Wickam
Clive Shepard
Stephanie Sandifer
Jay Cross
Tony Karrer - Ten Predictions for eLearning in 2008
Karyn Romeis
Gabe Anderson - "Articulate Will Dominate" in 2008
Peter Isackson - InterCultural Musings
Suzana Gutierrez - My prediction (in Portugese)
Sergio Lima - here (also in Portuguese)
Dan McCarthy
Kapp Notes: 2008 Predictions, Remembrance and Challenges
Oehlert's 2008 Predictions
Christy Tucker: Predictions for E-Learning in 2008
G-Cube: US Economy and e-Learning in 2008
http://www.soprando.net/ap/previsoes-de-aprendizagem-para-2008

What is to Come in 2008

2007-12-13T07:45:00.000-08:00

As I read the blog I'd like to post a few updates on our research and predictions for e-learning in 2008.

1. Social Networking is hitting the corporate scene, driving tremendous demand for informal learning, or what we call "learning on-demand." The solutions organizations are looking for include blogs, wikis, and communities of practice. The CoP companies we talk with tell us that their businesses are booming (Tomoye and Mzinga being two which focus heavily in this space).

We just surveyed 800+ worldwide training directors and CLOs and found that 83% feel they have a significant or urgent need to change their learning programs to deal with the learning styles of younger workers. And despite this need, only 35% feel that they have the tools and experience to do this today.

What we expect to happen in 2008 is an explosion in the use of "self-published content"- that is solutions which enable learners to reach out and support each other. Organizations which do this today include Cisco, IBM, Symantec, Infosys, and many more. In fact, this is something which is relatively easy to do - if you remember that your role is to "facilitate"this content interchange, not "create content."

2. E-Learning, as defined, is not as successful as one may believe. I have to say, I started working in e-learning before the term was coined and spent much of my career over the last 10 years in the development, analysis, and research in this topic. I figured that by now we would have "figured it out." This is not the case. In fact, in the same research I cited above (to be published this Spring), only 19% of organizations feel they are doing a good job at building "high-impact"courseware, 13% at building simulations and other higher fidelity forms of training, and most surprising of all, only 23% feel that they are doing a good job at blended learning.

This really suprised me. While many large organizations are doing quite well at this, far more are still behind the curve. I believe the problem is that the complexity of e-learning grows each year, and now we consider searchable content, audio, video, and web 2.0 interactions as "standard" for all internet applications. Content which is in the early 2000s "page turning" style has become very boring and hard to complete.

Anyway, much more to talk about but I'll keep this short. Please contact me at (510) 654-8500 or visit our website for more - we're publishing our 2008 predictions this week. (www.bersin.com)

Self-organized groups and the methods and ethics of accessing learning resources

2007-12-12T00:19:00.000-08:00

Jay Cross has posted some further reflections on the Hole in the Wall project that was presented in a keynote speech by Sugata Mitra at Online Educa Berlin two weeks ago. Although the Hole in the Wall has been going for at least 7 years and has been deployed (as Sugata told me privately) extensively not only in various locations within India but also in Africa and Cambodia, confirming the potentially universal application of the results, the deeper findings of the ongoing experiment only came home to me in Berlin, which -- incidentally and somewhat ironically -- perhaps reveals that public presentations by an active speaker in front of a passive audience may occasionally be an effective way of transmitting knowledge. This post can also be read as my personal answer to the Big Question for December, since the Hole in the Wall (HiW) was indeed the most significant revelation of the year for me. It’s always pleasant to see the experimental confirmation of one’s favorite hypotheses (concerning both social learning and e-learning as a resource), but as with all empirical evidence, I’ve discovered in HiW material for extending the original hypotheses and introducing new dimensions (e.g. the organizational, the psychological and the ethical).

It seems to me that the fundamental key to the success of HiW is the notion of "self-organized groups" who learn on their own. If education is to become truly non-invasive, as Jay suggests, it must refrain from defining both the goals and the means to reach them, entrusting the groups with this task. If educational gurus (authorities) notice that a group is neglecting what is considered "essential" in the curriculum (for whatever reason, whether it’s basic security, survival or inculcating an existing set of values), the group could be challenged to account for why they may be neglecting a certain topic or reminded of the interest in pursuing it. Respecting the self-organizing group and its decision-making capacity is the sine qua non of success. It also happens to be the absolute opposite of the organizational principles of traditional education and training.

It's worth reflecting on how learners in self-organized groups use external resources to solve problems. One of Sugata’s anecdotes in Berlin concerned a girl who was overwhelmed by the exposure to the micro-biology courses in English (a language she had to learn as the medium of instruction). She stole some money from her mother to phone her uncle in Delhi, who she hoped might be able to explain in simple terms what DNA was. His vague and unscientific but nevertheless informative answer gave her the minimum she needed to begin constructing her understanding of the lessons she wanted to explore.

In other words, everything one already knows or has access to in the world becomes a potential resource for building rather than simply receiving knowledge, traditionally from a single authoritative source. This is probably also the best answer to Andrew Keen – another keynote speaker in Berlin whose stock-in-trade is lamenting Web 2.0’s loss of the sense of established authority common to traditional education and the Web 1.0 -- because it demonstrates that even sources of knowledge (the uncle) that are not fully reliable can contribute to the construction and refinement of knowledge. Being exposed to a multiplicity of sources and entering into dialogue with them is the best way of evaluating the components of knowledge and understanding relationships between complementary elements. Inevitably such increasingly complex networks of knowledge (and interpretation of existing knowledge) produce a more diversified intellectual culture capable of appreciating value rather than relying on arbitrary criteria, such as university degrees or media-induced standards of celebrity: see for example this interesting article in the LA Times on the Trump University.

I expect that within the family (in Indian culture) the mother could forgive her daughter for the theft. It’s worth noticing that in some cultures – and especially within educational institutions -- that theft would not be forgiven and the child would be branded as a real or potential delinquent. It’s the old Jean Valjean problem that our western cultures are still struggling with, where the “rule of law” can easily become a rigid regime of “law and order” and human potential stifled with a vengeance.

Sugata told me that his results apply strictly to an age range of 6 to 13. He wouldn't commit to drawing any conclusions about how the findings might apply to older children and even less to adults. It's obvious that a similar experimental setting would be difficult to imagine. But I believe that parallels can be found, that the principles concerning the motivational factors of learning are similar and that, with some imagination in the "learning design", similar results could be produced in adults. The place to begin, of course, is CoPs since what the HiW children effectively did was to build and run their own CoP. And isn't "self-organized group" the best and most succinct definition of a CoP?

December Big Question - What did you learn about learning?

2007-11-30T08:35:00.000-08:00

We've somewhat lost our fearless Blogmeister, Dave Lee, so we've not been doing the Big Questions the past few months. I'll be doing the moderating. But, we are starting again ...

The Big Question for December is:

What did you learn about learning in 2007?

To help you get started, you might want to look back at some discussions going on last year at this time with a similar kind of question:

December 2006: Past experiences. Present Challenge. Future Predictions.

I personally am going to be looking back at some of my blog posts and look for those "aha moments." There were quite a few, but it's always good to go back and look.

January's Topic:

Predictions for learning in 2008

How to Respond:

We are going old-school on this, no forms.

Please post on your blog or put thoughts in a comment.

If you post on a blog, please include a link to this post. Ideally, you would also include the Big Question logo. After you post on your blog, leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog post. Periodically during the month, I will add you to the list below.

By the way, if you can make it as easy as copy and paste for me, that would be great. Otherwise, the links may not look great, but everyone can still get there.

Good stuff already coming in!

Posts So Far:

eLearning 2.0 for Law Firms - What did you learn about learning?
RÉCIT de la Pointe-de-l'Île - Question difficile - (I only understand the title of the post - someone let me know if this is okay to link to).
Karyn Romeis
Ignatia Webs
Hamilton Notes
Wendy Wickham (an Edublog Nominee) - My cursory, simplistic response
Clive Sheppard (another Edublog Nominee) - Most of It
Tony Karrer (another Edublog Nominee) - My Aha Moments in 2007
The big question: what did you learn about learning in 2007?
René Meijer - The Echo of Teaching
Clark Quinn
Kapp Notes: ASTD's Big Question for December: New Learning
How to leverage a Network: What I Learned in 2007
Mark Frank
Harold Jarche
Stephanie Sandifer - well done I might add!
Jack Pierce
Tom Haskins
Marianne - new blog for me, but really enjoyed the thoughts!
Marcel de Leeuwe - Pecha Kucha answer
What Did I Learn in 2007?
Kerry McGuire
Joel Adkins
Malinka Ivanova
Nicola
Norman Lamont
e-Learning Journey
Jay Cross
Geetha Krishnan
e-Learning Journey
Cammy Bean
Will to Learn
Anil Mammen
Christy Tucker
G-Cube Solutions
Jan Van Belle
Dan McCarthy
ASTD Cascadia
Mary Hillis

The Campfire and the Sandlot

2007-11-24T15:49:00.000-08:00

One can imagine the time in our pre-paleolithic history when formal learning consisted of two balanced parts:

During the day, people with skills would show others how to do something. "Grab the spear here," the teacher might say, taking the hands of the apprentice and putting them in the right spot. "Now practice in that sandlot over there by throwing it at that big tree. Keep doing it until you get it right. Then throw it at the smaller tree."

While at night, people around the campfire might tell of great adventures, including myths and legends. People would share ideas, and help their community expand their thinking. The best story tellers would gain bigger audiences and develop their own craft of narrative and suspense.

Then came the technology of writing. And suddenly the balance shifted. Communities were able build on the written work of the past. Written work also scaled well, where the work of one village could impact villages all around it. The disciplines of accounting and drama evolved geometrically. Meanwhile, practicing in the sandlot didn't change much. It was still a one-to-one activity.

Since the technology of writing, many subsequent discoveries have further augmented the "learning to know" skills. Paintings, theaters, printing presses and books, photographs, schools, universities, sound recordings, movies, scanners, Google (and now, the Kindle) all turned our culture into masters of linear content, enabling both great artists and our own exquisite vocabulary around such catnip as plot devices, antagonists, suspense, and the hero's journey, just to name a few. We can watch a Spielberg movie, a piece of campfire-style intellectual property that is the recipient of cumulatively trillions of dollars of investment and R&D, and evaluate it at a level of cultural sophistication that would awe citizens from a even a hundred years ago.

And yet, in the "learning to do" area, we are probably worse than our hunter-gatherer ancestors. For teaching the simplest skills, we mirror our ancestors ("put your hands here"), and for the more complicated skills, we don't have a clue. Ask a Harvard Business School professor to develop leadership (or any Big Skill) in a student and she will go into campfire mode with PowerPoint slides of grids, case studies, and so-called inspirational stories.

The advent of flight simulators and computer games, however, have introduced technology around "learning to do" that can finally scale. Today, there is a robust, if nascent, set of "sandlot" tools that is receiving a significant intellectual investment of the current community, and is able to build on the discoveries of the past. Today's "authors," often game designers, can begin to create virtual sandlots where participants can practice skills, instead of just hearing about them (the theory of nudging a pinball machine to get a better score, from a campfire perspective, is trivial; the practiced application is where it is hard).

And, correspondingly, an entirely new language is being developed. Gamers now effortlessly talk about end-of-level bosses, mapping Actions to interfaces, the attributes of Units on Maps, and what is good or bad level design.

During the next twenty years, the sandlot technologies (the "learning to do" through games and simulations) will successfully challenge the campfire institutions of universities, movies, and books not only for the discretionary time of the community (which we have already seen), but for help in improving their quality of life. We are already seeing glimpses of the latter through Carmen SanDiego, The Oregon Trail, Age of Empires, America's Army, Full Spectrum Warrior, Virtual Leader, and Brain Age. Will Wright, the creator of SimCity and The Sims, is the first Shakespeare or Beethoven of this medium.

In other words, people will engage in games not to play a super-hero, but to actually become more like one. And the balance between "learning to do" and "learning to know" may finally be restored.

The Learning Circuits Blog

New Skills for Learning Professionals

New Skills and Knowledge for Learning Professionals?

Time Spent

Where is your time spent?

Social Grid Value

How does/will the Social Grid will impact Human Capital and Organizations?

April 2009 - Getting Unstuck

Stuck? Getting unstuck?

Workplace Learning in 10 Years

Workplace Learning in10 Years?

Digital, Rapid eLearning, & Social Media Conversations

From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom - Innovate

It Only Took HOW Long? -Duthie earning

Spy

Two Strands of Connectionism - The Technium

Economic Impact

What is the impact of the economy on you and your organization? What are you doing as a result?

Challenges Plans and Predictions for 2009

What are yourChallenges, Plans and Predictions for 2009?

Learn about Learning - 2008

What did you learn about learning in 2008?

Network Feedback

Network Feedback

First eLearning

First e-Learning

To-Learn Lists

To-Learn Lists

No August Big Question

Lead the Charge?

Second Life Training

Second Life Training?

Learning Design Differences for Digital Natives?

Learning design differences for Digital Natives?

Big Questions

Do Better

What would you like to do better as a Learning Professional?

Scope of Learning Responsibility

What is the Scope of our Responsibility as Learning Professionals?

Instructional Design - If - When - How Much

Instructional Design - If, When and How Much?

Predictions for Learning in 2008

What are your Predictions for Learning in 2008?

What is to Come in 2008

Self-organized groups and the methods and ethics of accessing learning resources

December Big Question - What did you learn about learning?

What did you learn about learning in 2007?

The Campfire and the Sandlot

Workplace Learning in
10 Years?

What are your
Challenges, Plans and Predictions for 2009?