I started off my presentation with Eric Qualman's inspiring video, Social Media Revolution.
I said the Social Media Revolution is coming to learning and it is time to pay attention!
"Click and mortar; physical and virtual."
We said these words in 1999 when we started the Business Learning Institute in response to feedback from the national CPA Vision Project which identified the top 5 competencies required for the future.
Our vision was to create a "center for facilitating the development and sharing of competencies and strategic knowledge required for leadership in today's rapidly changing business environment...
A center - Click and mortar; virtual and physical; classrooms and computer screens are envisioned for BLI. But there is more to the concept of a center. It is an identifiable "place" understood as much for the context it provides, the kind of people who are found there, and the opportunity it offers."
That statement rings even more true today. It was also the focus of my presentation on the State of Informal and Social Learning that I gave at the NASBA CPE Conference last week.
The world is changing rapidly and so must learning. The three big mega-trends of globalization, technology, and workforce demographics are fundamentally changing the business landscape. We are moving quickly from a command & control environment to one of connect & collaborate or from push to pull.
That means we need to re-think learning from this new perspective. Learning is about creating communities of learners in engaging learning environments that foster collaboration. Where the learners are co-creators of the content and teachers are trusted guides and where leaders provide the context, physical and virtual; click and mortar.
How is this accomplished?
With all of the free (or nearly free) social media tools we have today. Twitter for sharing the conversation before, during and after the event. Social networks like facebook or linkedin for building community and connecting learners and teachers and even thought leaders and authors. Blogs for capturing post-event conversations and comments. Slideshare, Youtube, Flickr and more for sharing resources.
What is even more powerful is that all of these tools are easily accessible "on demand" right in the palm of their hand via smatphones, iPods, iPhones, etc. They can be used to stimulate thoughts among particpants before, during and after the "formal learning event."
Spacing out the learning and making it accessible for questions and answers greatly increases the effectiveness and retention rates so real "deep learning" can take place. That is why I think this is a revolution that needs to happen - viva la revolution!
Listen to other learning leaders (T. Rowe Price, Sun Microsystems, and Booz Allen Hamilton) from the ASTD 2009 International Conference about the impact of social and informal learning.
Social media tools are the best thing that could have happened to learning!
Check out my presentation and let me know what you think?
Check out the Tweet book from the conference here (via TwapperKepper)
Here are some more posts on the state of learning in the new normal:
The experience curve just can't keep up anymore
Wow, even social media like Facebook and Twitter can become a useful tool in learning the ABC's of business, aside from the four four corners of our schools. These will be a great help for young entrepreneurs who want to prove that their interests or hobbies can be profitable with less capital and even less manpower. Even high school students can learn how to spend their money wisely and invest safely for future use.
Posted by: Judith Gaston | September 15, 2011 at 09:34 AM