Archive | April, 2011
Social Media: The Virtual “Over-The-Partition” Learning Network

Social Media: The Virtual “Over-The-Partition” Learning Network

by on April 28, 2011 in Informal Learning, Instructional Design, social learning, Training Development, Video

According to the 1996 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 70% of workplace knowledge is learned informally (a statistic that is frequently referenced in the learning industry). While I haven’t seen more recent data, my experience is that the informal learning trend holds true today.

So, what does informal learning look like? Maybe something like this:

You walk over to a colleague, and ask, “How do I get this widget to stop blinking?” (Of course, you ask someone who knows widgets really well and who is willing to share their knowledge.) Fortunately, most colleagues (at least the normal ones) won’t ask a series of true / false or multiple choice questions to check your understanding. Instead, they show you how to do it and then help you as you try. They might even jot down a few notes that you can reference the next time you troubleshoot that widget problem.

So, here’s …

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Three Reasons Why Corporate Training Departments Could Become Extinct

Three Reasons Why Corporate Training Departments Could Become Extinct

by on April 26, 2011 in budgeting, Development Tools, eLearning, Training Development, Video

For some, the idea that a major corporation could do without it’s training department is unthinkable.  But, there are clearly trends pointing to the disappearance (or at least the dramatic shrinkage), of the traditional corporate training team.

How will training be produced and delivered in the future?  Most likely by small, specialized teams focused on business results.   Teams will be project-driven, closer to the customer, and more focused on giving workers knowledge and skills while they’re working, rather than creating ways to take them out of their work to consume “training.”

I should acknowledge here that there will continue to be some corporate function responsible for performance improvement, but traditional training departments will – at minimum – continue to be downsized and further decentralized.  In fact, for many training professionals who have been downsized or re-deployed recently, this entire blog post may sound like old news.

Here are

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Measuring Project Success: Thoughts for the Training Professional

Measuring Project Success: Thoughts for the Training Professional

by on April 24, 2011 in Project Management/Project Delivery

When we think of the concept of “success,” it often seems relatively straightforward.  Looking back on your day, for instance, it’s generally an easy thing to sum up whether it was successful or not.  Did your presentation go well to that big prospective client, or did your car break down on the way to work?  Were you able to get the gym as you had hoped, or did your boss need you to work late on someone else’s project?  Easily definable items such as these, measured against a finite number of other events, allow for relatively rapid analysis.

Yet, when one extends the number of competing factors a bit, measurement becomes increasingly difficult.  Just as it is generally easy enough to determine if your day went well, deciding if you had a good year can be a bit harder.  For one thing, how do you weigh competing factors against each …

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Embracing Innovation in Learning

Embracing Innovation in Learning

by on April 22, 2011 in blended learning, Classroom Learning, eLearning, Facilitation, Informal Learning, Innovation, Instructional Design, Leadership, Organizational Change Management, social learning

In her recent blog post Wonders or Woes of Change, Dr. Ellen Weber discusses the paradigm shift from traditional leadership to brain-powered, or innovative, leadership. This shift in leadership style can be characterized as moving from the “Do as I say” leader to the “Let’s work together to find the best solution” leader.  Leaders are beginning to move away from controlling the discussion to facilitating the discussion.

Early indications of this same paradigm shift can be seen in the learning and education arenas. We are moving, albeit in fits and starts, from traditional learning environments, where curriculum are essentially assigned to learners, to more collaborative and innovative environments where learners can self-direct their learning and participate in communities of passion.

The problem in executing this shift is not in setting up these new learning environments and communities, but rather in embracing the change. In her post, Dr. Weber asks this question:

Why is change

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Who’s Building the Social Learning Roads?

Who’s Building the Social Learning Roads?

by on April 20, 2011 in Classroom Learning, Informal Learning, social learning

Over the last few months I’ve discussed with my brother, a professor at Bethel University here in Minneapolis, how to incorporate social media into his classes.  Without throwing him completely under the bus, I’ll describe him as being late to the social media party but definitely ahead of the curve when it comes to openness to using informal learning elements like social media in his undergraduate courses.

Most of the time we end up brainstorming ways to incorporate tools like Twitter or Facebook into his lessons, because even though I may have more experience using social media, the tools are so new that no one really knows the best way to utilize them, for anything really.  Companies like Hubspot (love them, by the way) that market themselves as “social media” or “inbound marketing” experts do have some great ideas on how to leverage social tools to increase traffic, sales leads, …

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